5 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J 



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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA \ 

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BARNWELL. S. C. 



THE 



GREAT MYSTERY: 



GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH, 



AND OTHER DISCOURSES. 



1/ 

REV. M. E. SUARES, 

Of Barnwell, S. C, Author of "The Sabbath" and other Poems. 



" Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant 
with the house of Judah." — Jer. xxxi. 31. 






PHILADELPHIA: 

GRANT, FAIRES & RODGERS, PRINTERS, 

1875. 






Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

M. R. SUARES, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



[lis ilolume 



IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

TO THE 

MINISTERS OF THE BARNWELL AND SAVANNAH 
RIVER ASSOCIATIONS, SOUTH CAROLINA, 



THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



DISCOURSES. 

PAGE 

I. The Great Mystery 7 

II. The Moral Power of the Gospel 30 

III. The Effusion of the Spirit 52 

IV. The Stability of the Christian Church 74 

V. The Immortality of the Soul 95 

VI. Life's Brevity and its Sorrows 113 

LECTURES. 
I. The Eeason the Hebrews remain a Distinct 

People 133 

II. Whitefield, Chalmers, and Hall as Preachers 151 
III. Sabbath- school Address 174 



PREFACE. 



The author is a Hebrew by birth, and was born in the 
town of Beaufort, South Carolina, on the 11th of August, 
1812. His father was an excellent Hebrew scholar,~and for 
some time officiated in the synagogue in Charleston, South 
Carolina. He died in the same city when the author was 
about four years old. There were, in all, eleven children, — 
seven sons and four daughters. The author is the fifth son. 
He providentially attended worship at the First Baptist 
church in Charleston, South'Carolina, just immediately suc- 
ceeding the death of their highly distinguished pastor, Dr. R. 
Furman. At the age of fourteen he professed conversion, and 
in his sixteenth year was baptized in the First Baptist church 
in Charleston, by Rev. Dr. B. Manly. In his seventeenth 
year he sailed for Providence, Rhode Island, to study for the 
ministry. He arrived in Boston, Massachusetts, about the 1st 
of May, 1832, and immediately commenced his studies at 
South Eeading, Massachusetts, about ten miles from Boston. 
Here he remained two years, and then entered Brown Uni- 
versity, Rhode Island, under the presidency of Dr. F. Way- 
land. On his return South, he taught in several academies, 

1* 5 



b PREFACE. 

and finally engaged in the ministry. He cannot enter into 
details. He has been much afflicted, and in the full vigor of 
his manhood, found his usefulness seriously impaired by a 
bronchial affection. To this may be added partial deafness — 
which finally became total. 

He makes no apology for publishing these Discourses — ex- 
cept that his friends have frequently asked him to print a vo- 
lume of Sermons, which they might have as a memorial. It 
was his intention to revise these sermons, but the state of his 
brain is such that intellectual effort fatigues him. He hopes, 
however, that imperfect as some of these sermons are, they, as 
a whole, may afford the same pleasure and profit to the reader 
as he experienced in preparing them. 

M. R. S 



Barnwell, S. C, April 20th, 1875. 



DISCOURSE I. 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifest in the flesh. — 
1 Tim. hi. 16. 

To one accustomed from his infancy to believe in 
Christ, as God manifested in the flesh, the subject may 
not seem so mysterious, so perplexing ; because he may 
have been familiar with it from his childhood, at a 
time when he may never have thought much upon the 
subject. But at a time when the Apostles made a 
confession of their faith — when they taught to persons 
accustomed to reason on every subject, and who would 
not accept any thing, except on reason — the divinity 
of Christ was, undoubtedly, one of the grandest mys- 
teries ever introduced into the world. It stands alone 
in solitary grandeur, without an example, and we must 
not, therefore, be surprised that, when its claims were 
asserted by the Apostle Paul, the Greeks — -the philo- 
sophical Greeks — denounced it as foolishness. There 
is, undoubtedly, a moral grandeur in His mission, that 
He who made all things, the Father of our spirits, the 
Creator and Owner of this vast globe, He who rides 
on the wings of the wind, and makes the stars His 

7 



8 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

lamps, and the lightning His anger, and the thunder 
His voice, and the ocean His pillow, should so divest 
Himself of all His royal majesty and become one like 
ourselves, sin excepted, dwell with man, be a partaker 
of his physical infirmities, or suffer hunger and thirst, 
be insulted, derided, spit upon, scourged and put to 
death, is a transaction without a parallel, a mystery 
too profound to be contemplated by man, or by angels. 
So sensible, indeed, was the Apostle of this fact, that 
he made no effort to conceal it. He could not reason 
upon the subject, for he had no power to grasp it. 
There were no data on which he could construct an 
argument. He believed the mystery, though he could 
not comprehend it. He believed it — for to him it was 
the pow 7 er of God and the wisdom of God. He was 
once a persecutor. He had taken public measures to 
punish the followers of this delusion, as he supposed it 
to be; but the mysterious appearance of Christ to him 
on his way to Damascus had taught him another les- 
son — had revealed to him the mystery of Christ's 
power; and he became submissive — not from any lo- 
gical deduction — not from reasoning or conviction of an 
unanswerable argument — but from the invisible Spirit 
of God, who bore witness of Christ by convincing him 
(Paul) that the Messiah was God manifested in the 
flesh ; that this was enough for him to know, and that 
such was truth, and that his knowledge could extend 
no further than this. 

There is mystery, too, in the birth of Christ. He is 
said to be born of a virgin, without sin ; that His birth 
was supernatural. The mjstery is in His conception 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 9 

and birth. In that case, He partook of the nature of 
the human race and the nature of the Holy Spirit. 
So He became human on the part of His mother, and 
divine on the part of the Spirit. He became human 
because He could not make a sacrifice for sin unless He 
became such ; for were He all Spirit, all divine, He 
would be incorporeal and indestructible — He could not 
die; and were He all human, and not God manifested 
in the flesh, He would be an unrighteous person, like 
ourselves, and could not make an atonement for sins. 
The death of Christ as a sacrifice for sin was an open 
exhibition, a public confirmation of what took place in 
the chancery of heaven. It was a sacrifice which, in 
its moral aspect, took place before the foundation of the 
world. The personal appearance of Christ in the flesh 
was a condition upon which the power of God was to 
be more generally displayed for the redemption of man. 
Without the body of Christ there could be no visible 
sacrifice, and without God in Christ there could be no 
atonement. The divine and human nature of Christ 
were essential to the efficacy of the sacrifice. Such a 
thing, you see, has never occurred before, and will 
never occur again. It is one of the mysteries of heaven 
locked up from the knowledge of man on earth. But 
I do not think it will be a mystery to him hereafter. 
I think he will be able to comprehend it in part, at 
least when he becomes like God, when he shall see Him 
as He is. I think his mind will grasp all the details 
of God's plan of redemption — and what is now dark 
and unintelligible will be revealed to him in the 
plainest light. Nor is there any hardship in forbid- 



10 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

ding his knowing this mystery on earth. There is 
always a pleasure in progression; and could we on 
earth grasp all the mysteries of godliness, there would 
be nothing left for us to contemplate in heaven. 
We should have perfected our knowledge on earth, and 
as there would be no progressive improvement here- 
after, heaven would lose its attraction. 

The mystery of God manifested in the flesh is not 
an exception, for there are other things equally myste- 
rious. The growth of a plant, the wind that blows, 
and the magnetic needle, are mysteries. Man is a 
mystery to himself. He cannot understand those se- 
cret principles that give life and activity to mind and 
body. He cannot understand why the universe of 
matter and mind are united, and yet each mind and 
each particle of matter is perfectly independent. As 
yet, we know comparatively little. Science has been 
struggling for years, and how few are her conquests ! 
The world still lies outstretched before her in illimita- 
ble grandeur. If the laws of physical and mental 
science baffle us, though they are more immediately 
the field of our investigation, why should the mystery 
of godliness be objectionable? But the divinity and 
humanity of Christ are not altogether out of the reach 
of our capacities ; for although every thing is not God, 
yet God is in every thing. We recognize the presence, 
the wisdom, and the power of God in the sun, in the 
moon, in the ocean, in the lightning, in the warbling 
bird, and in the blushing rose; but more especially in 
man, who is made after His own image, and in whom, 
in dim outlines, we see His attributes; but more visi- 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 11 

bly and unmistakably in Christ, who knew no sin, and 
by virtue of this holiness became God, — that is, God 
in essence. The infusion of His divinity may be long 
or short, according to the purpose of God. In the 
person of Christ we see the most perfect innocence; we 
see a power that was supernatural ; we see that by a 
word He raised the dead, stilled the tempest, changed 
water into wine, gave eyes to the blind, speech to the 
dumb, fed multitudes, with a few loaves and fishes, 
raised Himself from the dead, was seen of men and 
angels, was preached and believed upon, and by the 
exercise of His power sent the Spirit to consummate 
what he had so gloriously begun. Here is brought in 
a very narrow compass the mystery of His religion 
and the grandeur of His Godhead. If He be less than 
God, it is idolatry to worship Him ; but angels worship 
Him in heaven ; they pay Him homage. That cannot 
be idolatry which God sanctions, and which He 
commands. 

But there may be some confusion in your minds on 
this subject — and let me give you an illustration which 
may aid your conception. Suppose, for example, I had 
power sufficient for my purpose, and I infused my 
power of speech, of mind, of strength, of body, into a 
bird, so that the bird should preach as I preach, think 
as I think, and exercise the power that I exercise, — in 
fact to be myself in essence, though a bird in shape, — 
would it not be just to say that I was manifested in 
the bird, and that the bird had two natures — one pe- 
culiar to itself as a bird, in shape, in wants, and neces- 
sities, — and one peculiar to me as a man ? Now let 



12 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

us transfer this illustration to the case in point. God 
from the beginning having unlimited power, and able 
to do any thing which He wills, but willing nothing but 
what is good, did provide a sacrifice for sin, which sa- 
crifice He made pure from sin, original and actual, and 
by virtue of His power infused Himself into the per- 
son of Christ to the extent necessary to make the atone- 
ment ; and that by virtue of this infusion, Christ be- 
came holy, free from sin, and by enjoying the attributes 
of God, He scanned the thoughts of men, raised the 
dead, and performed all that God could do. Now it 
must be affirmed of such a Person that He was God 
manifested in the flesh, or God's humanity. There 
can be no other conclusion. He was man, because He 
had our nature ; He felt fatigue and hunger, but at the 
same time He was God, just as the bird in question is 
a bird in shape and necessities, and human in capaci- 
ties. In this aspect of the case there is no contradic- 
tion to what John says: "In the beginning was the 
"Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was 
God." Christ was with God from the beginning, be- 
cause God had consecrated Him with His essence as a 
fit subject for the atonement; and in view of this, 
Christ is said to be a Lamb slain from the foundation 
of the world. Christ was God, and God was Christ, 
one and the same in essence, and indivisible. So that 
if it be Christ who created the world, it was God also 
in Him who did it. If there be any difficulty in un- 
derstanding this subject, that difficulty rests with our- 
selves, and not in the arrangement. God could not 
reveal Himself to us in any other way to be under- 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 13 

stood : being a Spirit, we could not identify Him un- 
less we were all Spirit ourselves ; but we being corpo- 
real and spiritual. He assumed that nature and condi- 
tion best adapted to our present mode of existence. 
No other revelation of Himself could have been prac- 
ticable. 

But there is nothing, after all, in this transaction 
that should stagger our faith. We can see how God 
may be manifested in the flesh — but the great mystery 
is, why should He do it? Why should He so act for 
man ? The mystery here is the mystery of His love, 
which transcends our conception. God may and can 
manifest Himself in any form He pleases. He mani- 
fested Himself to the Israelites in a pillar of cloud by 
day, and a pillar of fire by night. He manifested 
Himself to Christ at His baptism in the form of a 
dove. In all these cases it was God manifested in 
these forms. The mystery is not in the manifestation 
of God in the person of Christ simply, but in the 
atonement, in the amalgamation of the divine and hu- 
man nature of Christ, as two elements necessary to the 
redemption of man. The wisdom of this amalgamation 
is so profound, that we look at it with astonishment, 
the same as one ignorant of mechanics would look upon 
the operations of a steam-engine, because he cannot un- 
derstand the relation which the parts sustain to the 
whole ; but teach him, let him grow familiar with it, 
and that which was mysterious will appear plain. 
Now God manifested in the flesh is a mystery only to 
those who are in the flesh, who cannot comprehend its 
spiritual mechanism on account of present imperfec- 



14 THE GHEAT MYSTERY. 

tions. But the saints in heaven understand it in part, 
and are rejoicing over their discoveries; and it will be 
our turn, after death, to comprehend something of the 
same mystery. There must be an expansion of the 
spiritual faculties to comprehend this sublime science. 
The outlines of God's manifestation in the person of 
Christ may be taught here, the necessity of the atone- 
ment, and the grandeur of its object ; but any extended 
acquaintance with the mystery of redemption must be 
taught in heaven. 

We must not deny that God was in the person of 
Christ; because the evidences in this case are as clear 
and strong as we could desire them to be. It was God 
in Christ that made the atonement efficacious, though 
we are ignorant of the full manifestation of His power. 
We see a part of God — but the fullness of His wisdom 
and glory are beyond our reach. In nature we see 
God, but not all of God. We see only so much of Him 
as our capacities can comprehend. All beyond the na- 
tural eye and the most powerful telescopes, are myste- 
ries, not to God, but to ourselves ; because we are not 
able to comprehend them. Were those objects brought 
nearer to our visions, aided by more powerful tele- 
scopes, we might be able to extend our visions further, 
and learn more. The milky way would not have ap- 
peared to Herschel as golden dust, had he the power- 
ful telescope of Sir John Eosse, but systems of stars. 
God has revealed Himself to us in the humanity of 
Christ, but we cannot comprehend all of Him. Our 
spiritual visions and telescopes are too feeble to reach 
the majesty of that height to which He has soared in 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 15 

the world's redemption; and we must be, like New- 
ton, content to gather the mere pebbles of Kis mani- 
festation, while the fall glory of it shall lie in unap- 
proachable grandeur before us. 

Though we cannot see all of God, still we see enough 
of Him to arrest our attention, engage our sympathies, 
and absorb our thoughts. In the person of Christ He 
has approached us. He speaks to us. We feel His 
presence and power, and we are drawn to Him by the 
force of a moral attraction. We are more immediately 
influenced by that which is near than by that which is 
remote. Our conceptions are magnified, not so much 
by the real vastness of the objects themselves, as by 
their immediate proximity to us, and the influence 
which they exert over us. On this account the planet 
on which we live is one of absorbing interest to us — 
not because it is larger than other planets, but because 
it is our home, and because we are identified with it, 
and because we are familiar with it. We look upon 
its vast oceans, its volcanoes, its lakes, its rivers, its 
forests, its mountains, its sky and seasons, with pecu- 
liar interest, and feel that if no other existed, it were 
enough for us, and that in it we can find a thousand 
motives to be grateful to our Maker. The satellites 
that revolve around Jupiter do not afford us any plea- 
sure, simply because they are too remote, while our own 
satellite is gazed upon with inexpressible delight. Had 
God retained His original remoteness — had He circled 
above us, like some of the most distant stars, too far to 
be seen — we could feel but very little of His moral in- 
fluence. The vastness of that distance between Him 



16 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

and ourselves would have excluded all knowledge of 
His saving power, and the moral grandeur of His cha- 
racter would have remained a secret. But by ap- 
proaching us in the person of Christ, by coming down 
to our comprehension, by assuming a sensible form, by 
speaking and sympathizing with us, by warming us 
with the beams of His benefactions, He has awakened 
an interest in us that can be measured only by the 
vastness of His intellect. 

Although God manifested in the flesh is a mystery, 
yet we, who contemplate it by faith, feel that it has a 
life-giving power; that it enlists our feelings and en- 
chains our affection. Its power to crush out sins, to 
mould us into the image of God, and to turn the cur- 
rent of our affections into the channel of divine love, 
prove its divine origin — its adaptation to our necessi- 
ties. Our spiritual wants harmonize with its provi- 
sions, and we feel the adaptation of the Gospel of Christ 
to our necessities, as the thirsty man water, or the hun- 
gry man food. From motives drawn from this neces- 
sity, we accept the statement that God was manifested 
in the person of Christ, to do for us what we could not 
do for ourselves, — to redeem us from the curse of the 
law. The evidences of God's humanity in the person 
of Christ appear satisfactory to me. He came in the 
fullness of time — the time prophesied that He should 
come. He came when there was a general expectation 
that He should come. He performed miracles of the 
most singular character, such as were never known be- 
fore ; and these miracles, too, were performed with a 
word; and in some instances He healed those whom 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 17 



He did not see. He knew the thoughts of men; He 
raised the dead to life, and asserted His power to raise 
Himself, — and did raise Himself from the dead. Now 
it may be asserted that the prophets did the same thing 
in part — that the leper by them was healed, that the 
dead were brought to life. We assent to this. These 
miracles were necessary to give authority to their 
teachings — to inspire confidence in God. But there 
was this distinction : that while the prophets, in the 
name of God and in the application of means, healed, 
Christ performed the same by a single word, by His 
own authority. The bones of Elisha had the power to 
quicken the. dead body of a robber thrown into his 
grave, but these bones of the prophet could not quicken 
themselves; but Christ raised Himself — not only so, 
but glorified Himself — and in the presence of five 
hundred persons, ascended on high. When Elijah was 
taken up to heaven, it was done by a chariot; but 
Christ, without artificial means, rose by Himself ma- 
jestically, fixed the time of His resurrection, and acted 
in every respect like a God — as He who had supreme 
power to give or take life, to calm the seas or agitate 
them, to rock the earth or to still it, to stop the sun or 
bid him roll on in his glory, to call angels to do His 
bidding, or chain devils in hell. 

Such are the things we see in His life, which come 
to us authenticated by the most credible witnesses, — by 
men who have no motive in deceiving, and who spoke 
what they saw, and whose testimony was corroborated 
by others. Josephus says that there was such a Per- 
son as Christ, and He is represented as performing 

2* 



18 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

many wonderful things. On Mount Tabor, during 
His transfiguration, Moses and Elias appeared to Him, 
and there was a voice heard: "This is my beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased." At the river Jor- 
dan, during His baptism, the Spirit assumed the form 
of a dove, and the same expression is made use of: 
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well 
pleased." In the sepulchre an angel was seen by 
Mary, saying: "He is not here, but is risen." Seve- 
ral days after this, He was seen of His disciples, con- 
versed with them, gave them official instruction, pro- 
mised the outpouring of the Spirit, — and on the day 
of Pentecost this prophecy was fulfilled by the con- 
version of three thousand. He predicted the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, and that many who heard Him 
should live to see its fulfilment. All these predictions 
took place in the very manner described by Him. show- 
ing that He had as much control over the affairs of the 
world after His death as before it, — that all power was 
given to Him on earth as in heaven. We regard these 
facts as conclusive — as proving that whatever mystery 
there may be about the arrangement, that God was 
really manifested in the person of Christ, and that 
Christ in the manifestation of that power was God. 

The opponents, however, of God's humanity, deny 
the resurrection of Christ. They assert that such a 
thing is unnatural ; and that if He rose from the 
dead, the evidences are not as clear and conclusive as 
they ought to be. The objection urged here is that 
Christ did not show Himself in public after His resur- 
rection ; that to make His resurrection unequivocal, He 



THE GREAT MYSTEBY. 19 

ought to have appeared in the market-places and 
showed Himself to His enemies, and not to His friends 
or His disciples. Such an objection weighs nothing, 
and can be urged only on the grounds of prejudice. 
It was natural that Christ should show Himself, first, 
to His disciples, and none others. Supposing, in our 
recent struggle, General Lee had been killed and bu- 
ried, and miraculously rose from the dead, — would any 
man of common sense suppose that the most suitable 
persons to whom he should show himself would be his 
enemies? By no means! General Lee would go di- 
rectly to his leading Generals — to his army — and not 
to his enemies ! To those he would go, first, who 
fought shoulder to shoulder with him; who shared his 
danger, and to whom he was devotedly attached. To 
these he would go first — not merely from feelings of 
friendship, but from motives of policy. His presence 
would encourage them in their struggle — in the 
trenches — in the battle-field — in their marches. They 
would think that his resurrection was a divine inter- 
ference, an approval of their cause, a sanction of hea- 
ven, an endorsement of their struggle, and a pledge of 
success. The moral effect would be to stimulate to 
greater exertions. If Christ had not shown Himself, 
first, to His disciples, it would have defeated the object 
He had in view. They were already believers in Him, 
and they needed this last great, crowning evidence to 
establish them, so that not a shadow of doubt might dim 
the horizon of their faith. This He accomplished — 
and hence the cheerfulness with ^vhich they embraced 
every form of suffering for His sake. Besides, had He 



20 THE GEEAT MYSTERY. 

shown Himself first to His enemies, they would not 
have believed Him; and if they did, they would ar- 
raign Him again, and cry: " Crucify Him! crucify 
Him !" And if the reason be good for Him to show 
Himself in public places at His first resurrection, that 
reason will be equally good to show Himself at His 
second resurrection ; so that He might be crucified a 
number of times — rise a number of times : all of which 
might be unknown to His disciples, who, above all 
others, should know it. It would be bad policy to 
make His enemies the depository of this fact, who had 
every motive to conceal it. The contingency of two 
or three crucifixions and resurrections of Christ would 
neutralize prophecy, which makes Him die but once for 
the transgression of His people. 

There are some who deny that Christ is God mani- 
fested in the flesh; or they say that Christ is nothing 
more than a prophet, a good man, teaching morals and 
enforcing them by a blameless and irreproachable life; 
and that His death has no virtue to wash away sins; 
and that His life was intended to stimulate to deeds of 
virtue, humility, patience, and love; and* that He came 
merely to serve as a model of human perfection. 
Many of the Hebrews admit this, and the Unitarians 
go no further than this. To deny that Christ is God 
manifested in the flesh, is Judaism, no matter by what 
name you designate it. Unitarianism and Judaism are 
here one and the same, and identical. The onlyjiif- 
ference is that the former believe that He who is spoken 
of as the Messiah by the prophets, has come, and the 
latter do not. Yet the Hebrews admit that the Person 



THE GEE AT MYSTERY. 21 

called the Messiah is above reproach — a Man of un- 
blemished integrity — who, by rumor, performed many 
miracles; but that He is not the identical Messiah 
whom they expected. Had Christ, in addition to His 
miracles, restored the Hebrews to their political inde- 
pendence, He would have been received as the Mes- 
siah. It was owing to His failure (though intentional) 
just in this one particular that the Hebrews rejected 
Him. To elevate that people, however, to a civil dis- 
tinction was no part of His plan. It was a thing fo- 
reign to His arrangements, and He was rejected. But 
the rejection does not prove that He was not God ma- 
nifested in the flesh ; for the weight of evidence is 
much stronger in His favor than against Him. If, in 
a case of disputed identity, three persons out of four 
testify to it, and one not, and that one forms his con- 
clusion from pre-conceived opinion or prejudice, the 
court will accept the testimony of the three as positively 
conclusive. In the case of Christ, every prophecy 
bears testimony to His identity. In Him all the pro- 
phecies are fulfilled. The Hebrews give the only dis- 
senting testimony, and that testimony is the result of 
pre-conceived opinion. The verdict of the world is 
that Christ has come, and every day's history confirms 
this decision. Public opinion, formed under impartial 
investigation, is generally correct; and when given in 
support of a Scriptural truth, renders all attempt to 
destroy it futile. Truth is the offspring of the Eternal 
mind ; we may enhance it by embracing, but can never 
crush by opposing it. 

Our knowledge or comprehension of a law does nei- 



22 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

tlier make that law more or less efficient. Our under- 
standing its principles may enhance our pleasure, but 
can never add any thing to its inherent power. The 
lightning flashes and flits along the horizon, and shat- 
ters the sturdy oak, and scathes the tall pine, and con- 
sumes the lofty dwelling, just the same now as it did 
before Franklin demonstrated the fact or solved the 
mystery that lightning and electricity are identical. 
And so the sun darts his rays upon us, makes the earth 
glow in beauty, warms it into activity, and dispenses 
his benefactions as liberally as though science had ne- 
ver demonstrated the fact that he is not a vast ball of 
fire, but a luminous vapor. The stars twinkle as 
beautifully in the heavens as though we had never 
known that their light is identical with that of a can- 
dle. And the earth moves gloriously on, performing 
its diurnal and yearly revolutions, as though Copernicus 
had never discovered this fact. And there is power in 
the lightning — in the tempest — in the sun — in the 
earthquake — in the magnetic needle — in gravitation — 
in the ocean — whether there are mysteries connected 
with them or not. And so there is power in the di- 
vinity of Christ — a power which is as palpable as the 
light of the sun, and which, though mysterious, is ne- 
vertheless true, because we feel it and know it ; other- 
wise the conquest of the atonement would be inexpli- 
cable upon any human reasoning, and w r ould become 
yet a greater mystery than the divinity and humanity 
of Christ. Julian, the apostate, did every thing in his 
power to crush out the mystery of godliness; but this 
royal apostate failed. He brought his influence, his 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 23 

wealth, his learning, his authority, his ridicule, to si- 
lence it; but it still advanced with unexampled suc- 
cess. He expended a fortune to rebuild the second 
temple, in order to defeat prophecy, but flaming fires 
rushed from the bosom of the earth, and thwarted his 
base designs. On his dying bed, when all hope of 
living had fled, and his feet were ready to tread the 
shores of the unknown, he exclaimed with his dying 
breath: "Oh! Nazarene! Thou hast conquered ! Thou 
hast conquered !" 

To say that the death of Christ involved no mys- 
tery, would be gratuitous. We see the objections you 
might urge against it — but we do not consider them 
valid. You might ask me, why should any sacrifice 
be made at all ? Why should God, who is so great, 
condescend to disturb Himself about man, when there 
are many other worlds larger than this, and which may 
be inhabited by a superior race of beings? But such 
an argument is irrelevant. It is not a question as to 
what God may do, but what He has done. We must 
know beyond doubt who the inhabitants are that oc- 
cupy the other planets ; whether they are angels, or 
whether they fell as Adam did — and if so, under what 
circumstances. And we must further know whether 
the law of generation exists there as here; whether 
they die as we do here; whether sin is hereditary, and 
whether the inhabitants are, like ourselves, morally 
unable to work out their redemption. All these facts 
must be understood first before we begin to reason 
upon the subject. Were I disposed to conjecture, I 
might say that the other planets are the abodes of sin- 



24 THE GREAT MYSTERY. 

less creatures, to which the good on earth are destined; 
but as an argument, it is worth nothing. 

Besides, we must not estimate objects by their size, 
but by their intrinsic value. Athens, in Greece, was 
a small place, but her glory was unsurpassed. This 
planet is certainly smaller than some others, but her 
population may be prospectively superior. We may 
arrive at a higher destination. The inhabitants of the 
other planets may be stationary — we are progressive. 
Sir William Herschel in his cradle is a different thing 
from Herschel, with telescope in hand, gazing on the 
stars, and fixing their revolutions. Franklin, crawling 
upon his knees in infancy, is a different thing from 
Franklin, with kite in hand, bottling the lightning. 
Dr. Kane, helpless upon his mother's bosom, is a dif- 
ferent thing from Dr. Kane in the Arctic regions, leap- 
ing from iceberg to iceberg, in search of Sir John 
Franklin. Professor Morse, in his infancy, is a differ- 
ent thing from Morse at his battery, communicating 
his thoughts by electricity. These mental conquests 
teach us the wonderful power of the human intellect; 
and we do not know to what vast distinction that in- 
tellect may arrive when unencumbered by the body, 
which now acts as an incubus to its development. So 
let us say no more about the other planets, but about 
that which we do know. It is therefore useless to con- 
jecture ; and if you cannot understand how Christ is 
the humanity of God, it is no special fault of yours, be- 
cause it was never intended that you should understand 
it in the flesh. There are very few of us who can fol- 
low the mathematician in his calculations about the 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 25 

eclipses, and yet it is none the less a fact that eclipses 
do take place, and at a time predicted, though we are 
ignorant of the process of the calculation. Let us be 
as reasonable on this point as we would be upon 
others, and more especially so, as the mind of God in 
its operation is so much superior to ours. 

That Christ was God's humanity, is one of those 
subjects which we cannot comprehend, or reconcile to 
the known ideas of reason ; and we must accept it upon 
the statement of Him who made other things equally 
mysterious to us. The assertion that Christ is God's 
humanity, is supported by evidences of the most con- 
clusive character; and these facts demand our assent 
precisely the same as the predictions of the astronomer 
demand our belief; for the prophecies relating to 
Christ have been as accurately fulfilled as the predic- 
tions of the astronomer, only with a higher degree of 
science, as the time for the appearance of Christ was 
not only more remote, but more complicated, in its 
fulfilment, than the predicted occurrence of an eclipse. 
The astronomer had to deal with the laws of motion, 
and the prophets w T ith the laws of volition. The 
former had to deal with mind and matter — the latter 
with moral causes and effects through interminable se- 
ries of ages. The astronomer required a mind drilled 
in the science of numbers, and the prophets required 
the inspiration of the Deity. The prediction of the 
astronomer is the result of mathematical knowledge 
operating upon the laws of motion — and the predictions 
of the prophets are the results of God's calculation 

wrought out through inspired agencies. The prophe- 
^3 



26 THE GREAT MYSTERY, 

cies relating to Christ would not have been fulfilled, 
had He come in any other character than God mani- 
fested in the flesh. It was necessary that He should 
embody the attributes of God in Himself; and hence 
we find Him nobly responding to all that was predicted 
of Him, and by which He has established unequivo- 
cally His identity. Nor does it affect the question as 
to how this was done — for in this lies the mystery. 
We certainly know that He gave eyes to the blind — 
that He healed the sick — that He raised the dead — 
that He raised Himself — and that His life, amid its 
darkest scenes, was untainted with the shadow of a 
crime. All His miracles were performed by a word. 
He was God as to His power, and man as to His form 
and necessity. He was not an angel — for He was in 
shape a man. If He did what no one could do but a 
God, then He must have been God manifested in 
the flesh. 

There is an objection which I wish to notice : 
It is thought by some, with regard to the atonement, 
if Christ be God, how can God suffer when He is not 
the transgressor? Would it not seem to conflict with 
the idea of the supremacy of God's happiness? For 
the remotest thought that God is susceptible of pain 
would destroy the idea of His happiness, and that for 
Him to suffer for a moment would make Him cease to 
be God. 

The objection here arises from a misconception of the 
person w T ho makes the atonement. It is not God Him- 
self who makes the atonement, but Christ, in His hu- 
manity, sanctified by His divinity, — from which di- 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 27 

vinity He derived all the strength and virtue necessary 
to make an atonement for the sins of the world. If 
Christ was merely human and sinless, He could make 
an offering for one individual, but no more. His di- 
vinity sanctified and consecrated His humanity, and so 
made His death meritorious to wash away the sins of 
the world. In order to make the subject plain, so that 
you may understand me, I will give an illustration: 
Suppose my veins were opened, and I was to make an 
atonement for the sins of another man: I would die as 
soon as the blood was drawn from me, because my 
blood was limited, and could make an atonement only 
for one; but suppose the blood of another man was let 
into my veins — I could then die for two ! Now sup- 
pose there was an inexhaustible fountain of blood, and 
that no quantity drawn from it could exhaust it, and 
this fountain of blood was in direct communication 
with me : then the blood from my veins might flow on 
forever, and I make an infinite atonement. Now what 
this fountain of blood would be to me, the divinity of 
Christ is to Him, in supplying Him with moral efficacy 
to atone for the sins of the whole world. It is not, 
therefore, God in Christ that makes the atonement, but 
the humanity of Christ, impregnated with divine 
strength to sustain the guilt of an apostate world. 

Objections might be made to the effect that Christ, 
being sinless, suffered innocently, — that a person should 
have been selected, like ourselves, who was guilty. 
AVe answer to this, that the attributes of God, which 
were very essential to be known to us, could not have 
been developed or made perfectly manifest in their at- 



28 THE GKEAT MYSTERY. 

tractiveness through a sinful medium. There was 
needed a perfect humanity, with a conscience pure, with 
an affection untainted, and with a will immaculate. 
Through any other medium, the attributes of God 
could not have been displayed in kind, and the moral 
effects of the atonement would have been neutralized 
by this defect in the arrangement. It was only hu- 
manity in its sinless perfection that could answer the 
law, or give a satisfactory answer to the all-thrilling 
question: "What must I do to be saved ?" With 
the divine attributes all fully developed in the person 
of Christ, He became an acceptable sacrifice for sin. 
God accepted Him as such, and through Him the fall 
of man is to be reclaimed. Sin is to have no more do- 
minion over us who believe in Christ. A new order 
of things is established in the economy of Grace. The 
will of God is more palpably brought to our view. We 
gain a clearer conception of the magnitude of God's 
love, the profundity of His wisdom, and the majesty 
of His justice. In the person of Christ we see God, in 
the grandeur of His moral character, struggling to turn 
back the current of sin, and to restore to man some- 
thing of that peace which his progenitor had forfeited. 
And, so far, the manifestation of Himself in Christ has 
been successful. The temples of heathen gods have 
become desolate. Human sacrifices have been abo- 
lished ; and wherever the mystery of godliness is felt, 
the human race rises in importance and moral beauty. 
We may not be able to reconcile the crucifixion of 
Christ with the justice of God, which calls for our con- 
demnation and execution, yet it is nevertheless true 



THE GREAT MYSTERY. 29 

that God, in the person of Christ, becomes the life, the 
hope, the peace of our redemption. The coming of 
Christ was the fulfilment of a grand prophecy — the 
hope of the Church and the world. He was the desire 
of all nations. Zion was to rejoice in Him, and the 
whole earth to be made glad. Our hopes, our joys, all 
centre in Him. By Him our sorrows are lightened, 
our affections are softened, whom, though we do not 
see, yet we love Him, and, believing in Him, rejoice 
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 

"Let Him be crowned with majesty 
Who bowed His head to death, 
And be His name exalted high 
By all things that have breath. 

" Jesus, our Lord, how wondrous great 
Is Thine exalted name ! 
The glories of Thy heavenly state 
Let all the earth proclaim. " 



q* 



DISCOURSE II. 



THE MOEAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 



The world by wisdom knew not God ; it pleased God by the fool- 
ishness of preaching to save them that believe.— 1 Cor. Chap. I. 21. 

The text contains a positive declaration, viz. : that 
the world by its wisdom knew not God, and that God 
in His wisdom instituted the preaching of the cross, as 
a means of saving those who believe. The subject is 
one of peculiar interest and importance, and deserves 
a candid consideration. 

If we leave revelation out of the question, and ap- 
proach the teachings of the philosophers of ancient 
time, we shall find, that though their views in some 
respects may be rational, yet upon the whole there is 
much that is dark and contradictory. It is true that 
some of these philosophers insisted more upon morality 
than many of the Jewish teachers ; but the presump- 
tion is that they were indebted for the first draft of 
their moral ethics to the Hebrews, who, in their dis- 
persion, scattered in their pathway a knowledge of 
divine revelation. The sublime doctrine of the resur- 
rection and future judgment, which was shadowed 
30 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 31 

forth in the Jewish revelation, was more ardently 
taught and pertinaciously insisted upon. The confu- 
sion in their theory lies in the object from which their 
chief felicity is to be derived. They were able to feel 
the necessity of a future felicity, but they could not see 
enough to explore the true sources of that felicity. It 
was wrapped up in clouds, and darkness far beyond 
their comprehension, and there was a longing within 
for something purer and holier than they yet were 
familiar with. This sentiment led them to represent 
the Deity under various forms, and to people the region 
of fictitious bliss with deities of their own. Hence, 
w r e have the complex and contradictory character of Ju- 
piter, the chief deity of Greece and Rome. He had no 
fixed moral nature ; but like the chameleon, changed his 
moral complexion to suit the tastes of his worshippers. 
We find him at one time pandering to the vilest pas- 
sions of men, and at another time hurling with his red 
right hand the thunderbolt of vengeance to crush the 
guilty. At one time we see him looking humanely on 
suffering humanity, and at another time stifling the 
cries of pity with the most ingenious torture. At one 
time we find him exercising an overwhelming power, 
crushing empires with a nod ; and again, so imbecile as 
not to protect his own kingdom. The character of 
their inferior deities was no less repulsive. Mars, the 
god of war, found pleasure in nothing but blood, and 
carnage ; and so popular was he that his temples were 
crowded with worshippers. If we turn to the licen- 
tious Venus, or the jealous Juno, we shall find tem- 
ples erected to their worship, and divine honors paid 



32 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

to their memories. Each individual was at liberty to 
select, as an object of worship, the deity, whose nature 
was more in harmony with his own passions. It is on 
this ground that we must account for that promiscuous 
blending of right and wrong, that unbridled licentious- 
ness, that Vandal-like spirit, that recklessness of all 
the rights of persons, and society, which inundated the 
world before the introduction of Christianity. Under 
such a system as this, where the standard of morality 
is so little elevated, where the passions roam unchecked 
by law or example, the most dreadful scenes will greet 
you as you travel over this moral waste; and you will 
feel deeply that the world in its wisdom knew not God. 
That there is a Being infinite in power, the rude and 
untutored child of nature may believe; and the more 
cultivated may carry their speculations yet further. 
They may look into the bright face of the sun, and 
admire that golden light which he scatters over this 
earth. He may look upon the moon, smiling in the 
softness of her light, or upon those glittering stars that 
deck the vault of heaven. He may sit down in the 
vernal season and admire the beautiful roses that greet 
him in his walk, or the sweet melody of birds; from 
this scene, his soul glowing with love, may look 
from nature up to nature's God ; but yet he could not 
say whether this beautiful earth and those stars and 
moon and sun were the productions of many minds, or 
of one. He may in his perplexity call science to his 
aid; and she may tell him that the light of a candle is 
identical with that of a planet, or under the same law; 
but this would prove only unity of design, and not 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 33 

that all he had seen was the work of one infinite 
mind. They may by the aid of reason and science 
arrive at the conclusion that there is but one God, infi- 
nite in power and wisdom • but it would baffle the 
combined skill of both to say what relation they sus- 
tain to this great Being, and what course of conduct 
would be most acceptable to him. Even here, how- 
ever, I am conceding more than facts would justify ; 
for in that period distinguished above all others for 
literature, dignified with the name of golden age, we 
find numerous different names attached to the Deity. 
Some regarded him as slothful and inactive, indifferent 
to the interests of this world ; supposed that changes 
took place without his consent; that he was a mere 
creature of necessity, destitute of wisdom, liberty and 
power. 

Viewing the subject in this light, or as it presents 
itself to us, it requires no effort to see that a system, so 
confused and contradictory, could not well reduce 
itself to order and beauty without an express commu- 
nication from heaven. Socrates and Plato were evi- 
dently models for the age in which they lived. They 
reasoned well, and I question whether any, unaided by 
revelation, could have done better. But even these 
two philosophers were not satisfied, and longed for 
further light from heaven. They were like men tra- 
velling in a dark and stormy night through unbroken 
wastes. They could see only as the flashes of the light- 
ning gleamed around them, and all again would be 
impenetrable darkness. The bright beams of the sun 
to light up their footsteps, to cheer their hearts, and 



34 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

give certainty to their progress, was all that was requi- 
site to add to their safety and peace of mind. Hence, 
when the Sun of righteousness arose with healing in 
His wings, when with those wings He fanned away the 
stormy clouds of ignorance and superstition, and per- 
mitted the splendor of heaven's light to fall on this 
sin-stricken earth, these longings for further light 
ceased ; and when from the lip of the sin-distressed is 
rung the inquiry; " Where might I find him for whom 
my soul longeth ? " the answer to this interesting ques- 
tion is given; "Behold the Lamb of God who taketh 
away the sins of the world.'' The world at present 
seems satisfied with the theology of Christ. Enough 
has been revealed to satisfy the lawful aspirations of 
the soul, and the most gifted philosopher now bows in 
reverence to the teachings of Heaven. 

No less confused and dark were their views of the 
future state of man. If we shall go back to remote 
ages, and explore the antiquity of the Bramins, and 
the Perses, to whom the Greeks were indebted for the 
elements of their philosophy, we shall find, it is true, 
the soul's immortality acknowledged; but only on the 
sublime theory of a universal soul, that mystically 
impregnates man at his birth with its eternal essence, 
to be again resorbed after the death of the body. Or 
if we consult the pages of Egyptian and Arabian my- 
thology, we shall find nothing said of the future condi- 
tion of man. All beyond the grave is wrapped in im- 
penetrable darkness. Although the immortality of the 
soul was believed to some extent by philosophers, yet 
we find so much contradiction among themselves that 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 35 

we are necessarily led to question the correctness of 
their reasoning. The truth is, the immortality of the 
soul cannot be positively proved by any mode of hu- 
man reasoning. It is one of those truths which we 
feel, and the influence of which comforts us ; but what 
is the precise nature of that soul, what is it that con- 
stitutes its imperishable essence, is a subject as far above 
human comprehension as the stars are above the earth. 
There may be a conviction of its truth, a strong innate 
feeling that we shall exist hereafter, that the soul is 
impregnated with the elements of eternal life ; — 

" Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality." — 

Yet there are no data on which an argument can be 
founded. We may speculate, we may say that matter 
is not necessarily perishable, that the soul of man is 
composed of fine atmosphere, or fire, or that numerous 
elements enter into its constituency, yet all is mere con- 
jecture. 

"One thinks the soul is air ; another, fire ; 

Another, blood diffused about the heart ; 
Another saith the elements conspire, 

And to her essence each doth give a part." 

The world in its wisdom will ever feel itself 
mocked in its attempt to define the souFs immortality. 
On this sublime subject, it must ever be kept in a 
state of suspense and uncertainty. Under the Jewish 
dispensation there was a shrinking of the soul back 
upon itself at the prospect of death ; because there was 
an uncertainty as to its destiny. Men could see one 



36 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

end of the soul's immortality resting on the earth, but 
the other, pointing heavenward, became invisible in 
the distance, and they ascended with trembling steps, 
because they knew not on what its summit rested. 
Hence, the preaching of the cross of Christ was in- 
tended to do that for them, which they could not with 
all their wisdom accomplish for themselves, viz. : 
bring life and immortality to light; not however by 
reasoning, but by revelation. There is now no trem- 
bling, no recoiling at the prospect of the future — 

" The soul secure in her existence smiles 
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point." 

It is not, however, the mere abstract knowledge of 
God to which the text refers. It has a more practical 
meaning than this. It evidently alludes to a know- 
ledge that is experimental and not speculative. When 
the world with all its boasted wisdom could not save 
man from the power of sin, it pleased God by the fool- 
ishness of. preaching to save them that believe. Philo- 
sophers felt that sin was an evil ; that men were under 
its influence ; that it struck its root deep into the 
human heart, and that it was the source of inexpressi- 
ble evils; but how to check it, how 7 to counteract it ; 
how to appease the wrath of an offended God, against 
whose moral laws sin is committed, how to satisfy the 
law T ; and yet save the sinner, were questions which 
they could not solve. The sinner, laboring under a 
sense of conscious guilt, can find no comfort by consult- 
ing their philosophy. The law speaks to his sin-pol- 
luted heart in tones of thunder. It forbids him to 



the mural power of the gospel. 37 

hope for mercy, and the soul, terror-stricken like the 
wounded hart, leaps frantically, but all in vain. The 
poison of sin rankles deep within, and there is no 
earthly remedy. The guilty may lacerate his body ; 
he may give his first-born to atone for his sins ; he 
may perform laborious pilgrimages; but after all, he 
will feel that these acts of self-torture can give him no 
quietude, that the soul, still bleeding under a sense of 
sin, asks, "When shall I appear just before God? v I 
know that the force of superstition sometimes soothes 
these disquietudes of the mind, and the worshipper 
feels a momentary joy in his devotions ; that the Pa- 
gan, sacrificing his white heifer, and throwing incense 
on the flame; that the Mahomedan bathing himself, 
and turning nine times to his holy Mecca ; that the pa- 
tient Hindoo, abstaining from animal food, and pour- 
ing his benedictions on the Ganges, think that they 
are just before their gods. But all with them is a 
matter of delusion ; the soul is still unblest, unforgiven 
by Him to whom alone they are responsible. It is 
just here that the wisdom of the world fails — fails to 
answer the all-thrilling question, " What must I do to 
be saved?" This was a question which could not be 
satisfactorily answered by any human system. It has 
passed from many a lip ; the old and young have 
asked it ; the rich and the poor ; the wise and the 
ignorant; but never could an answer be found till 
Christ made it a faithful saying, that he came into the 
world to save sinners. On the cross where he expired 
there was shed forth a light so penetrating, a wisdom 
so profound, a power so great, a love so fathomless, a 



38 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

sympathy so intense, that the guilty soul is drawn to 
notice the noble sufferer, and to feel that Christ is the 
wisdom and the power of God to them that believe. 

If it w T ere possible by any human mode to save man, 
the restless inquiries of philosophers would have dis- 
covered it. Every motive of ambition and humanity 
urged them on to this ; but we find their systems de- 
fective, no matter how ingeniously wrought or 
eloquently insisted upon. The creative genius of man 
here failed him ; his resources were inadequate to the 
necessities of man. His failure was no reflection on 
his capacities. He undertook to do that which none 
but an infinite mind could accomplish. He spoke to 
man of his dignity, of his importance, of his destiny. 
He clothed virtue in the most costly apparel, and in- 
vested her \*ith a divine sanctity. He pointed man to 
her as the spiritual El Dorado of his hopes, the puri- 
fier of his heart, and the ennobler of his nature; but 
the motives thus excited were not sufficiently impul- 
sive. They might reform the manners, but they could 
not change the heart. The tide of corruption within 
was as turbid as ever; the fire of passion glowed as in- 
tensely. Nor more successful was he when he ap- 
pealed to the superstition of man, when he pretended 
to derive a revelation from heaven, and offered re- 
wards to the good, and threatened punishment to the 
wicked. The fountain of iniquity within still bubbled 
up ; the streams still flowed in every direction, and 
their waves dashed on impetuously, ingulfing in their 
turbid waters all that was morally beautiful and 
lovely. Never was there a truth in the history of the 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 39 

world more painfully felt, and more generally acknow- 
ledged, than that the world in its wisdom knew not 
how to reconcile man to God. 

To restore the lost image of God to our fallen race 
was not only a work which mocked the puny efforts of 
man, but was a task from which angels would instinc- 
tively shrink. Their superior intelligence placed them 
on higher grounds of observation, or else their exalted 
benevolence would have led some one of them to un- 
dertake a mission of the kind. Their feelings w r ere 
deeply enlisted on this subject. They no doubt wept 
as they saw man manacled by the power of sin, and 
every day approaching steadily to that fiery gulf, the 
flames of which are never to be extinguished — I said, 
they no doubt wept, and I say yet more, they no doubt 
prayed, that He by whom and for whom were all 
things made w T ould hasten his mission, that they 
might no longer become mourners and pall-bearers at 
the funerals of lost souls, but ministers to them who 
are heirs of salvation. And I imagine that when they 
saw the court of Heaven in consultation, they gathered 
around in groups and whispered with lively interest, 
that the long-pray ed-for deliverance was at hand. And 
when they saw the Son of God rise from his throne 
and hasten to save this otherwise ruined world; when 
they saw him enter this earth, they could restrain their 
feelings no longer ; they strung their harps and sang 
" Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good- 
will to nien." The strains of that song swelled and 
deepened till all Heaven glowed under its inspiration. 
And hence the only subject which now occupies the 



40 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

attention of Heaven is the conversion of the soul ; 
every other topic is insipid, uninteresting when con- 
trasted with this. 

The difficulty which opposed the world's wisdom in 
reconciling man to God, was its ignorance of the con- 
ditions on which God would be satisfied. When two 
persons disagree, it is not the right of the offender to 
make the conditions of peace; the injured person is 
the most competent one to decide the amount of repa- 
ration to be made, and until this is done by the injured 
person, and communicated to the trespasser, no recon- 
ciliation can take place. Such was, precisely, the con- 
dition of the persons in question, God and man. The 
laws of God were violated by man. God became 
angry with him and threatened to execute him, but 
suspended his executive power for reasons of humanity. 
The contest between them was fierce. Man wished to 
be reconciled on his own terms, and God the offended 
scorned to accept them; and thus it stood for ages, 
until the proposals were read to man from the brow of 
Calvary. The Saviour came with the olive branch of 
peace in his hand, and offered reconciliation to man on 
conditions every way honorable to God and beneficial 
to man. The human mind is not now bewildered as 
in former times on this absorbing subject. It is writ- 
ten as plainly as if pencilled with sunbeams. The 
deep injury we inflicted on him is now more clearly 
understood. The terrible punishment to which we 
were doomed appears in an aspect more appalling, and 
his love and justice now rise up in all their colossal 
grandeur before us. We now admire that wisdom and 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 41 

humanity, which, before, we had neither the capacity 
nor the disposition to understand. 

But I have said enough to you on this part of my 
subject, and allow me to turn your thoughts to some 
of those features in the Gospel of Christ which the 
philosophers of Greece considered foolishness. 

The first thing which excited their disgust was the 
simplicity of the Gospel, as well as the character of 
those who taught it. Their intellectual pride was 
such that they could recognize nothing as worthy of 
their attention, which did not originate in some one of 
their schools of philosophy. Flattered for ages for 
their philosophical acumen, ruling their very conquer- 
ors, the Romans, by their superior intelligence, they 
became vain. Hence when the Apostle Paul visited 
Athens and preached the resurrection of Christ and 
pardon through his atonement, the learned Greeks de- 
rided it, and called it foolishness. The simplicity of 
the Christian system ought rather to enhance than 
diminish its value. No sensible man despises an in- 
vention because of its simplicity. This, with him, is 
rather a desideratum, provided it accomplishes all that 
was intended. To pronounce the preaching of the 
cross foolishness because of its simplicity, when others 
have found it beneficial in its operation, to say the 
least, is nothing but affectation, a love for the marvel- 
lous, the mysterious, the terrible, and the sublime. 
Had Christianity been taught by kings and philoso- 
phers ; had it been paraded through the streets with all 
the insignia of royalty, attended with national banners 

and music, instead of a few poor fishermen, they might 

4* 



42 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

then have respected it and become its worshippers, if 
its service was as splendid and magnificent as its equi- 
page ; but because it was so unostentatious, so simple, so 
clear in its nature, and so definite in its object, they 
treated it with contempt. It was no part of the genius 
of Christianity to clothe itself in unintelligible ab- 
straction — to w r rap its teachings in mysticisms — to 
bewilder the common mind. It had a higher and a 
nobler mission. It came to seek and to save those that 
were lost; and while it was so simple that a child 
could understand its theory, it w r as at the same time so 
profound that angels, with all their advantages, could 
not comprehend its mystery. The Apostle Paul, 
whose mind was of no ordinary mould, calls the atone- 
ment a mystery, God manifested in the flesh. 

But acceding that the Gospel is simple, suited for 
children and uneducated men and women, yet I for 
one rejoice in its simplicity ; for, in my estimation, it 
is an evidence of its greatness. The government of 
God, extensive as it is, is marked with simplicity. 
The greatest king or emperor of Russia w T as the sim- 
plest of men. The most powerful minds employ the 
simplest forms of expression. The application of 
steam, though the simplest, is yet the most powerful 
and revolutionary of all physical agents. Turn your 
thoughts for a moment to the enormous power of 
attraction, simple as it is ; see through what infinite 
range that po^er is felt ; see what mighty masses are 
whirled about by its agency, from a grain of sand to 
the mightiest planet that traces its way through the 
heavpns ; ard yet all this is accomplished with a still- 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 43 

ness as profound as its power is wonderful. See, too, 
the lightning with its terrible flashes, shivering the 
mighty oak, splitting the lofty pine, like a reed, and 
scattering battlements, like grains of sand, and yet so 
simple that Franklin, with a silken thread, confined it 
in a bottle. Why, the simplicity of the Gospel is its 
wisdom, its glory, its power, its grandeur, its divinity. 
While the Christian faith is simple, and to it we 
must ascribe in a great measure the prosperity of the 
world, the advancement of literature, science and free- 
dom, yet some of its doctrines are so original, so bold, 
so startling as to confound the schoolmen of Greece. 
By no mode of reasoning can they solve the problem 
of the doctrine of the Trinity, nor can they compre- 
hend how God can be manifested in the flesh. Here 
their logic is confounded ; their metaphysical specula- 
tions cast into the shade; and because they could not grasp 
this sublime system in its detail, they called it foolish- 
ness. Such conduct is rather an evidence of ignorance 
than wisdom. When Fulton proposed to navigate the 
sea by the aid of steam, the plan was pronounced fool- 
ishness. When it was proposed to travel by steam on 
the earth at the rate of twenty or thirty miles an hour, 
the plan was thought by many persons foolishness. 
When it w r as proposed to connect the two hemi- 
spheres by an electric cable, it was thought foolishness. 
But what a change has come over men's minds. What 
was once foolishness is now wisdom, and what was 
once bold> original and startling, is now the common 
occurrence of life ; and so the erudite Greek, had he 
lived to see the development of the principles embo- 



44 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

died in the preaching of the cross of Christ, would 
have undergone a similar change, and pronounced it 
the wisdom of God. To ridicule what we cannot fully 
understand is not an act of wisdom ; for if we act on 
this principle, we ought to ridicule our own existence, 
though it is to us a source of so much pleasure. We 
ought to ridicule the magnetic needle, though it guides 
the mariner to every quarter of the globe. We ought 
to ridicule the sun, though he is the source of light, 
life and beauty. It was never the intention of God 
that we should understand all the doctrines of the 
New Testament. If it were so intended, he would 
have simplified those doctrines, or else enlarged our 
capacities to comprehend them ; but as he has done 
neither, it was his intention to clothe them in clouds 
and in darkness. 

Another feature that seemed foolishness in the eye of 
the philosopher, was the punishment of the innocent 
for the guilty. There are two conditions on which 
such a transaction in a particular case may be highly 
beneficial, both to the law, the innocent and the guilty. 
The first is that the act shall be voluntary, and the 
second, that the substitute be superior in wealth, in in- 
telligence, and morality. Such a transaction in a par- 
ticular case will not compromise the law, but add to its 
dignity, will not serve as a motive to its violation, but 
to its better observance; will not dishonor the inno- 
cent, but wreathe his memory with imperishable 
honors. And so in the death of Christ. The case 
was peculiar. The law demanded that the offender 
ehould be slain. The love of Christ led him to inter- 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 45 

cede. He volunteered to die in the place of man, and 
being holy, without sin, he became a suitable substi- 
tute. The law accepted the offer, because it saw that 
it would be not only more honored, but that a moral 
motive would be created by such a transaction as would 
ensure its better observance ; that instead of society 
losing any of its valuable materials, it would in the 
end gain more; that instead of the innocent being in- 
jured, he w x ould receive a kingdom and a crown, and 
rule over the noblest of subjects. Here is a transac- 
tion in which justice, mercy and benevolence are 
blended in one harmonious whole, moving on to ac- 
complish two grand results, viz. : the happiness of 
man, and the glory of God. That we should be bene- 
fited bv the labors and sufferings of others is not un- 
usual. It occurs in the history of every day. The 
father labors incessantly. He denies himself. He 
amasses a fortune, and his children, who shared not his 
labors, inherit it. The mother studies, cultivates her 
mind and her heart, and the child enjoys the benefit of 
that culture. Patriots have fought and bled on the 
battle-field in the noble cause of freedom, and many 
perished on the scaffold, and posterity reaped the fruits 
of their sufferings and their deaths. Is it strange that 
we should be benefited by the sufferings of Christ, 
who was rich, yet for our sakes became poor that we 
through his poverty might be made rich? 

Another feature of foolishness was the demand of 
faith in the doctrines so taught. The doctrine of the 
resurrection and the trinity was to be accepted, solely 
on the authority of Christ. The philosophers assumed 



46 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

that the laws of mind required that such doctrines 
should be consistent with reason ; they did not so con- 
sider them ; they could not see what relation faith in 
the death of Christ sustained to their redemption. 
They had accustomed their minds to believe in natural 
causes and their legitimate effects. They could see no 
natural relation between the death of Christ and faith 
in him, as a cause for pardon and eternal life. Their 
error consisted in misapprehending the genius of the 
Christian system. That religion is without precedent. 
It occupies a midway station between Heaven and 
earth. It stands alone in solitary grandeur, forbidding 
too near an approach by man. Its genius was sha- 
dowed forth under the Old Testament, when the sign 
of the blood of a lamb on the posts of the doors, was 
considered a sufficient cause to stay the hand of the 
destroying angel. It was shadowed forth, too, in the 
wilderness, when the brazen serpent was erected and 
consecrated by God as a cause to heal those who looked 
upon it. There was no natural relation between the 
cause and effect, but the blood of the lamb and the 
brazen serpent being appointed by God for a particular 
purpose accomplished all that was intended, as though 
the effect was the result of a legitimate cause. The 
preaching of the cross is an ordinance. The blood of 
Christ has been consecrated by God as a legitimate 
cause for redemption, and it will as effectually save the 
soul that believes on it, as though the relation was 
natural. Such an arrangement as this clothes the Gos- 
pel dispensation with a purity that can never be sullied, 
and advances more surely and eminently the glory of 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 47 

God. Any other arrangement than this would rob 
the atonement of that holy and isolated character in 
which its real dignity and humanity consist. Obedience 
to a natural law would draw the attention from the 
author of that law, and in time all sense of dependence 
would be lost. We would look upon the effects of 
that law with as much indifference as we look upon the 
ordinary workings of nature. Hence the preaching of 
the cross, demanding faith as the condition of salva- 
tion, so far from being foolishness, is an act of the pro- 
foundest wisdom— an arrangement which no one could 
have originated but Him, who said, " Let ther j be 
light, and there was light." 

Another feature of foolishness in the preaching of 
the cross was that the sufferings of Christ were too 
short in proportion to the work to be achieved. We 
have not the means of ascertaining the precise amount 
of Christ's sufferings. The duration and intensity of 
his sufferings far exceed our conception. When men 
undertake to perform a great deed, they are suffering 
more or less in anticipation, until the dreadful hour 
arrives for the execution of their purpose. The atone- 
ment of Christ was moral, not physical. He had it in 
contemplation for ages. It began in the remote cycles 
of eternity; and hence he is said to be a lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world. The tragical scene 
of Calvary was familiar to his imagination long before 
it was executed. He viewed it in all its aspects and 
relations, and the intensity of his desire to execute bis 
purpose, to put the seal of his blood upon this transac- 
tion, could find no language more appropriate than — 



48 THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 

"Lo, I come to do thy will." The atonement was 
infinite, and its importance and efficacy could not be 
measured by the duration of time. An infinite sacri- 
fice is immeasurable by time. It would be an act of 
presumption for any one to decide how long an infinite 
Being should suffer for the sins of a finite world. 
Here all calculations are confounded ; and it becomes 
impious to time the sufferings of Christ. Besides, the 
importance of an act is not to be measured by the time 
consumed in its execution. Adam was not long in 
sinning, and yet what painful consequences followed 
that act of disobedience. A man with the single stroke 
of his pen may carry sorrow to many a heart; may 
blast his hopes and his family ; may cover his memory 
with shame. A sudden death may interfere with the 
policy of a nation, and throw her back for ages. In 
science, some of the most happy discoveries have been 
made in a few moments. The importance of an act is 
to be measured by its intrinsic worth, and not by the 
time employed in its execution. 

No event has yet occurred that should dissuade us 
from preaching the Cross. No other system has been 
given to supersede it, and the command to preach it is 
still binding on us as on the apostles. Its high dis- 
tinction as the only means of saving man is yet unri- 
valled. The author of this Gospel well knew that it 
was the only means adapted to the conversion of the 
sinner ; that it had a language, a motive, and a power 
that could reach his heart, and bring it in grateful 
obedience to himself. Nor was he in long suspense. 
The system of foolishness began to exert a prodigious 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 49 

power. Its progress was as remarkable as its genius 
was original and benevolent; and everywhere was 
heard the inquiry: "Men and brethren, what must I 
do to be saved ?" New trophies every day w T ere added 
to the preaching of the Cross, until on the day of Pen- 
tecost three thousand were converted by the preaching 
of a single sermon. Some of these not long before 
may have witnessed the crucifixion of Christ, whose 
hands might be said to be yet stained with his blood. 
Time has not yet diminished the virtue of the Gospel. 
It is the same agent wielded by the power of the Spirit, 
and is making conquests every day, shaking to its very 
foundation the empire of Satan and reducing his move- 
ments within narrower limits. The fruits of the Spirit 
are ripening in every soil, and the cause of the once 
despised Nazarene is advancing with gigantic strides. 
The world in its wisdom hides its face in silence, 
while the banner of redemption floats in every 
breeze. 

The preaching of the Cross not only reconciles man 
to God, but is a powerful agent in the cause of civili- 
zation, science and freedom. It scorns and strangles 
all spurious religions. It abjures all excesses of enthu- 
siasm. It looks mildly, generously and charitably 
upon the motives of men. It exercises a wholesome 
jurisdiction over the thoughts, and purifies the heart. 
It unites its scattered members into a sort of common 
brotherhood. It gives a more delicate sensibility to 
our sympathies, and makes us weep with those that 
weep. It makes us contented with the things that are, 
and inspires us to hope for better. It seeks to elevate 
5 



50 THE MORAL POWER OF THE tfOSPEL. 

us in the eye of God, not by the indulgence of pride, 
but by a poverty of spirit. It aims to make us as 
near like God as our condition will permit. In every 
circumstance of life, where it has been preached in its 
purity, it has never failed to make a beneficial impres- 
sion. We have seen it preached among the savages, 
and they immediately threw away their rude imple- 
ments of war. We have seen it preached among the 
idolaters, and they have cast away their idols. We 
have seen it preached among the educated, and they 
have risen yet higher in the scale of morality, intelli- 
gence and humanity. We have seen it preached 
among sinners, and they have been stricken to the 
heart, and asked : " What they might do to be saved." 
We have seen it preached to the Church, and a new 
impulse has been given to their devotion : the cold in 
heart were warmed into animation; the lukewarm 
were revived into vigor, and the neglected cause of 
missions roused into activity. It inspires man with a 
love for whatsoever things are excellent and of good 
report. It blesses him with a peace of mind, to which 
before he was a stranger. It moderates his love for a 
world which is seductive and ruinous to his peace. It 
elevates his soul, and teaches him that it is nobler to 
forgive than to resent an injury. It raises him above 
the power of temptation, and makes him trample those 
sins in the dust that would otherwise enslave him. 
It supports him in the hour of affliction ; comforts him 
in his sorrow; enlivens him in his solitude; enriches 
him w T ith grace in his poverty; props him up in his 
old age; consoles him in his bereivement; inspires 



THE MORAL POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 51 

him with triumph in the hour of death; and crowns 
him with a glorious immortality. 

The preaching of the Cross, while in our present 
state, may not make us as holy as we desire to be ; yet 
it is nevertheless moulding us every day more and 
more after the image of God. It is sowing in these 
hearts of ours the seeds of humility, faith, hope and 
love, and is thus preparing us for an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away. How 
great then will be its triumph ! how many hearts will 
thrill with ecstasy, and how rapturous will be the 
song : " Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name 
be all the glory. " 

" Christ and his cross are all our theme ; 
The mysteries that we speak 
Are scandal in the Jew's esteem, 
And folly to the Greek. 

" But souls enlightened from above 
With joy receive the word ; 
They see what wisdom, power and love 
Shine in their dying Lord/' 



DISCOURSE III. 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIEIT UNDER 
THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, that I 
Will pour my Spirit upon all flesh. — Acts ii. 17. 

These are the words of the Apostle Peter addressed 
to the crowd who surrounded him on the day of Pen- 
tecost, when the Holy Spirit fell on them, and they 
spake in tongues unknown to them before. The crowd 
was astonished to hear men speak in languages with 
which they were not familiar. " How hear we," say 
they, u every man in our own tongue wherein we were 
born ? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the 
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia 
in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in 
Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia, about Cyrene, and 
strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and 
Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the 
wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, 
and were in doubt saying one to another, What mean- 
eth this ? Others mocking said, These men are full 
of new wine.'' 

It was under such circumstances that the Apostle 

Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and 
52 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 53 

said : " Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at 
Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to 
my words : for these men are not drunken as ye sup- 
pose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But 
this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel ; 
1 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, 
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh/ " &c. 

If you will refer to the 44th chapter of Isaiah and 
the 3d verse, you will find that a similar promise is 
there made : " For I will pour water upon him that is 
thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour 
my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy 
offspring." Water is intended for the Spirit, and the 
seed here is intended for Christ, and offspring for those 
who are born of the Spirit. As if God had said : 
" Under the Gospel dispensation a great change shall 
come over spiritual Israel. My Spirit, which has only 
been dropping upon them, shall now be poured — shall 
fall in a stream, not only on the Israelites, but on all 
nations, kindreds, tongues and people. A new era in 
the administration of my government shall arise. 
Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem shall not alone be the 
places where I shall display my presence ; but in every 
place will I be present to bless, and every pious heart 
shall become a fit temple for the Holy Spirit. The 
power of my glory shall not be confined to the Jewish 
nation ; but it shall enlarge itself. Many shall enter 
this new economy, and flourish like willows by the 
water-courses." 

Thus the prophets, Ezekiel, Isaiah and Joel, which 
latter the Apostle Peter here quotes, seemed inspired 

5* 



54 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

with the happy vision of a great change in the economy 
of God. The Jewish religion, though good for the 
time being, shall be superseded by another more com- 
prehensive, more perfect, more universal in its applica- 
tion — there being nothing to add to it, and nothing to 
be retrenched. It was the ultimatum of God's will to 
man, and like the glory of the sun, it absorbed within 
its capacious fulness the Judaistic light of revelation. 
Hence, when this new economy began ; when its light 
first beamed over Bethlehem ; when wise men recog- 
nized and identified its heavenly origin ; when Simeon 
thanked God that his eyes had seen the salvation of 
Israel, the Jewish economy was approaching its end. 
It began then to give tokens of dissolution. Another 
holier and brighter light arose in the person of Christ 
— a fuller and purer doctrine was taught by him — a 
doctrine adapted to the constitution of man, harmoni- 
zing with all his relations in life — a doctrine so com- 
plete, that it left nothing to be desired to the all-im- 
portant, all-interesting question : " What shall I do to 
be saved ?" Thus it found a sympathy in the human 
bosom. Thus it taught that God is no respecter of 
persons. It abjured all priestly distinction, and with 
an eye impartial it recognized the whole human family 
as occupying the broad basis of a common brotherhood. 
It taught that God so loved the world that he gave 
his Son to die for it. Thus the coming of the Mes- 
siah was a new revelation ; his kingdom a new king- 
dom, and it formed a new epoch in the administrative 
policy of God. By this act God abrogated all the rites 
of Judaism — all the pomp and splendor of its worship; 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 55 

and on its ruins has erected a beautiful spiritual Tem- 
ple, in which the offerings are holy affections. 

It was the last day of Judaism when the Saviour 
expired on the cross. Its death-warrant was then 
signed by the blood of Christ; for soon the Jewish 
temple was destroyed, the genealogical records lost ; 
their sacrifices ceased; and they themselves scattered 
to the four quarters of the earth, without a temple and 
without a country. While it is strictly correct that 
the last days refer to the extinction of Judaism, as an 
essential part of the religious system of God, it refers 
in like manner to the Gospel economy, as the last and 
final dispensation of God to man ; so that it would not 
be inappropriate to say : "Thus saith the Lord, under 
the gospel dispensation I will pour my Spirit on all 
flesh ;" that is, on the human race ; for flesh is a figu- 
rative expression, as when it is said : "All flesh is as 
grass/ 7 meaning the human race. 

And it should be remembered by you, that a pro- 
phecy of this character is to be fulfilled gradually, 
continuously, until its consummation ; for the Spirit is 
not to fall in drops, as under the Jewish dispensation ; 
but He is to be poured, implying an unbroken conti- 
nuance, as well as suggesting the idea of inexhausti- 
bleness and freeness. Thus the Spirit will be poured 
on all flesh — all the nations of the earth shall feel his 
convincing and sanctifying power, and rejoice as those 
did on the day of Pentecost, in the plenitude of his 
blessing. Hence, every victory which the Holy Spirit 
gains over the empire of sin is a fulfilment of Joel's 
prophecy : for the final triumph or diffusion of the 



56 TIIE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

Spirit is not to be instantaneous ; not to be accom- 
plished by a sudden and abrupt revolution ; but by 
successive advances. And although on the day of 
Pentecost this prophecy was in part fulfilled, in that 
some of all flesh enjoyed his miraculous and sanctify- 
ing agency ; yet has that Spirit in his ordinary influ- 
ence been flowing down to the churches and the world 
in an unbroken stream, widening and deepening its 
channel, gathering power in its course, and approach- 
ing, though silently, yet truly, to the universal fulfil- 
ment of this prophecy. Every accession made to the 
kingdom of Christ is a pledge of yet greater accession; 
for the elements which the Holy Spirit has enlisted in 
his cause are aggressive. The power of the Spirit is 
an accelerated one. He pours down. He gathers 
weight and volubility. He becomes irresistible, and 
the puny restraints imposed on him are swept away 
like feathers on the surging of a mighty cataract. 

Desirous as we may be to know something of that 
Holy Spirit, whose mission is to conduct this world back 
to God, yet we must ever remain in ignorance of his 
mode of existence. It is one of those truths in' the 
science of theology which no finite mind can grasp, 
and which will ever remain in unapproachable gran- 
deur by man. It w T as the contemplation of this strange 
and mysterious Godhead, this doctrine of the Trinity, 
that overwhelmed the mind of the Apostle Paul; that 
checked the ardor of his investigation, and forced him 
to a condition of painful despondency. Great to him, 
and angels, and the world, is the mystery of the God- 
head. We look abroad, and here and there we see 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 57 

mystery. We look at ourselves, and the same per- 
plexity follows us. We ask Science to explain to us 
the reason why the magnetic needle points to the north 
pole, and she is silent. We ask her again to explain 
to us the philosophy of the wind, and she is silent. 
Reason suggests that if we cannot understand the mo- 
dus operandi of those objects which we see and feel, 
and which bear so immediate relation to ourselves, 
there should be no reasonable grounds for disquietude 
should we not be able to grasp those objects that beloug 
more immediately to the science of Heaven. 

The Holy Spirit, whose influence is to be poured on 
all flesh, is not an attribute of God — not an element of 
his existence ; but a distinct and separate personage, 
exercising an office peculiar to himself, yet in essence 
identical witli God, and inseparable in his existence 
with him, so that if it were possible for God to die, 
the Holy Spirit would die with him. How these 
three persons so exist, that they are one in essence, and 
yet three in person, is beyond the range of human 
comprehension ; and how inexplicable soever to us, it 
is nevertheless a truth which under another economy 
we may understand. When Galileo, the astronomer, 
declared that the earth moved round the sun, instead, 
as was supposed, that the sun moved round the earth, 
he nearly suffered martyrdom at the hands of the 
Romish Church ; because to that Church it was a new 
theory, and the reasons for which it could not compre- 
hend. But when the theory was demonstrated ; when 
science trampled this Romish ignorance in the dust, 
that which before seemed contrary to reason now ap- 



58 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

pears as clear as the mid-day sun. It is far from my 
purpose, however, to insinuate that the progress of sci- 
ence will enable us to comprehend the doctrine of the 
Trinity. There is no relation between a human and 
divine science; no analogy between the science of 
Heaven and the science of earth. We may, however, 
assert that when we shall become pupils in the school 
of Heaven ; when we shall sit down and be instructed 
by Christ, we shall see into the philosophy of those 
truths which on earth were inexplicable to us. 

Mysterious as the doctrine of the Trinity is, yet we 
must accept it on the testimony of Him whose veracity 
is unquestionable. The Saviour, the founder of the 
Christian faith, says: U I am he who bear witness of 
myself, and the Father bears witness of me ; and when 
the Comforter shall come, he will bear witness of me." 
This witness of the Holy Spirit to Christ was borne on 
the day of Pentecost. He ratified what Christ had 
previously said. His outpouring was a promise made 
to the apostles, and looked for with the same anxiety 
as the coming of the Messiah was looked for among 
the Jews. This promise too was made after the resur- 
rection of Christ, and in forty days it was fulfilled in 
his miraculous gifts. To this glorious event, which 
the Apostle Peter considers the most illustrious evi- 
dence of the ascension of Christ, he refers as a reason 
for those before him to repent, as the promise of the 
Spirit was to them and their children. For this reason 
the Spirit is often called the Spirit of promise, as a 
person distinct and separate from the Father. The 
Spirit is said to proceed out of the Father — to be sent 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 59 

by the Father, and to be distinct and separate from 
Christ. "Behold I send him," says Christ, "and if I 
go not away, he will not come." That Spirit descended 
on Christ — filled him — sanctified him — sustained him 
in his humanity ; and hence a distinction is made be- 
tween sinning against the Son and the Holy Ghost. 
" All sins spoken against the Son of man shall be for- 
given ; but not against the Holy Ghost." The Holy 
Spirit did not in his person assume a state of incarna- 
tion like the Son of God — that Spirit was not crucified, 
and rose again from the dead, and ascended heaven. 
He passed through none of the ordeal through which 
Christ passed. His sympathies, to be sure, were ex- 
cited ; but he himself was a mere spectator of those 
tragical sorrows that flooded the bosom of our Saviour. 
The Spirit stood by to comfort and sustain, but felt 
none of those blows that fell in such merciless fury on 
the person of Christ. " I will ask the Father," says 
Christ, "and he will give you another Comforter." 
" We have access," says Paul, "in one Spirit to the 
Father. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love 
of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with 
you all. There are three that bear witness, the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 

The Holy Spirit has an office distinct and peculiar. 
He is represented as a teacher ; " He shall teach you 
all things." Again, as a leader : "He shall lead you 
into all truth :" as a remembrancer : " He shall bring: 
all things to your remembrance;" as a witness: "He 
shall testify concerning me. He shall not speak of 
himself; but whatever things he shall hear, he shall 



60 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

speak, and he will tell you things to come." In ad- 
dition to this, he searches into the mind of God; is 
familiar with the plans of Heaven, and the destinies 
of men. Hence he abstains from any special effort in 
striving with those whom he knows that God means 
to give over to judicial blindness to fill up the measure 
of their iniquity; while he follows pertinaciously 
those whom God means to seal unto the day of salva- 
tion. And hence the Spirit is said to search all things, 
yea the deep things of God. "The things of God 
none knoweth save the Spirit of God." 

It is this third person in the Trinity whom the 
Father will send on all flesh, and under whose influ- 
ence the wilderness shall blossom as the rose, and the 
dry places of the earth shall become pools of living 
waters. The miraculous gift of the Spirit was abso- 
lutely necessary to sustain the divinity of Christ. 
Without it, Christ could never have satisfactorily 
proved his Messiahship. The chain of prophecies in 
this case w T ould have been too short just by one link, 
which nothing else could supply, and the whole fabric 
of Christianity would have fallen into ruins. There 
would have been nothing after the resurrection of 
Christ as a memorial of his divinity. But the Holy 
Spirit, coming at precisely such a time, and under pre- 
cisely such circumstances as predicted ; that he should 
work precisely such miracles as he did ; on such an 
occasion as this, there can be no room for deception ; 
for the apostles did through the agency of that Spirit 
work miracles. Philip, the evangelist, healed a great 
number of the demoniacs. The Apostle Paul had per- 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 61 

formed so many, and his reputation so extensive, that 
the populace flocked to him; in some instances bring- 
ing the handke. chiefs and aprons of the diseased, that 
he through these might heal them. 

And these miracles, too, were wrought not under 
circumstances where deception might be employed. 
They were performed openly in the presence of enemies 
and friends. They did not imagine, like the priest- 
hood of the Romish Church, that the presence of a 
heretic would forbid the performance of a miracle. 
The power of the Holy Ghost was with them, and that 
power was to bear testimony of Christ; not before 
friends, but before his enemies ; and hence the apostle 
says : " Tongues are for a sign, not to them that be- 
lieve, but to them that believe not." 1 Cor. xiv. 22. 
To remove all doubts from the mind of the unbelieving 
Hebrew, there were to be wonders in the heavens, and 
blood and fire. Josephus informs us, that there was a 
star resembling a sword which stood over the City of 
Jerusalem, and a comet that continued a whole year. 
It is also said by him, that on a certain night about 
the ninth hour a light shone round the altar of such a 
brightness that it seemed like the mid-day ; that one of 
the massive iron gates of the temple, which took twenty 
men to shut it, of its own accord opened. It would 
seem a fable, says he, if it were not so well authenti- 
cated, that just before sunset, chariots and troops of 
soldiers in their armor were seen running about among 
the clouds, and surrounding of cities. At the feast of 
Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the 

inner court of the temple, they felt a quaking, and 
6 



62 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound 
as of a multitude saying: u Let us depart hence." 
These were no doubt some of the wonders spoken of. 
And as to the blood, fire and smoke — those will attest 
whose blood was shed by Pilate; by Herod; the 
twenty thousand massacred in Cesarea; the thirteen 
thousand in Scythopolis, and the fifty thousand in 
Alexandria. The gift of the Holy Spirit was the cli- 
max of evidences in favor of Christ's divinity. His 
miraculous gifts on the day of Pentecost will ever 
remain a monument of the divinity of Christ, and the 
trembling and penitent Hebrew will here find an un- 
answerable argument for his faith. Like the lofty 
spire of some house of worship, the body of which may 
be concealed by trees of large foliage, yet it makes us 
feel that the broad foundation on which it rests is sure 
and steadfast. We look up to it with a reverence 
equal to the majesty of its appearance, and expect it to 
remain, amid storms and sunshine, the praise of its 
great architect. 

We do not now expect the display of the miraculous 
power of the Spirit. The object which God had in 
view is accomplished. Revelation has received its 
finishing stroke. The great edifice is completed in all 
its departments. The truths of the Gospel on that 
memorable occasion have been confirmed. There will 
be no more gifts of tongues, of miracles, of interpreta- 
tions, of prophecies, of discerning of spirits to attest 
the divinity of Christ; for the testimony once being 
given was intended for all times and for all places. 

But there was needed besides this external testimony 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 63 

of Christ's divinity another of a personal character — a 
testimony which shall have an immediate connexion 
with the soul, and may be denominated an internal 
testimony; a testimony founded on conviction of our 
sins, and the necessity of such a Saviour. Without 
these two combined testimonies, the system would be 
imperfect. It would be deficient in its practical work- 
ings. Without this internal testimony, the Christian 
system would be like a beautiful steam-engine without 
the power of locomotion. We may admire it for the 
beauty and symmetry of its proportions ; but we could 
never personally identify ourselves with its operation. 
As it now stands, it has the power of locomotion. It 
moves on like a thing of life and energy, overcoming 
opposing barriers. The miraculous gifts of the Spirit 
on the day of Pentecost, bearing testimony to Christ, 
and his convincing and sanctifying power in the soul, 
progressively from age to age, give this great heavenly 
machine a momentum which it could never otherwise 
attain. Thus every soul converted is not only an evi- 
dence that the Spirit is being poured in his saving 
power, but carries an additional evidence of the divinity 
of Christ — an evidence that is a living and perpetual 
memorial of it. 

The outpouring of the Spirit in his saving influence 
alone is that which we now enjoy, and which is neces- 
sary to the consummation of Christianity. The Spirit 
does not supersede the necessity of the atonement; but 
he is intended to act in connection with that atone- 
ment. He sustains the same relation to the death of 
Christ that the steam sustains to the engine. The 



64 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

Spirit puts in motion the death of Christ. He brings 
that death before the eye of the sinner. He makes 
him see that price which was paid for his redemption, 
and forces him to look upon Christ, whom he has 
pierced. Hence the Spirit convinces the world of sin, 
of righteousness, and of judgment to come. The sin 
of rejecting Christ was revealed by his miraculous 
power on the day of Pentecost ; but that revelation of 
the sin of rejecting Christ is successively made by bis 
saving influence on the hearts of all who are truly 
penitent ; for it is the Spirit that shows the number, 
the extent, the malignity of their sins; and it is be 
who particularly points out to them their guilt, their 
danger ; and it is he who creates within a desire to 
flee from the wrath to come. The Spirit not only con- 
vinces of sin, but saves from the power of sin. He 
does not at once extinguish the corruption of the heart, 
but breaks the love and strength of sin, and nurses the 
soul for the kingdom of heaven. Hence he is fre- 
quently represented under the figure of water and fire, 
denoting the cleansing and purifying process through 
which he carries the soul. He washes the soul with 
his regenerating influence, while he disclaims all power 
in relieving the soul from the guilt of sin. The power 
of the Spirit is more conspicuously displayed in the 
conversion of a sinner than in his miraculous gifts. 
The power of converting was never delegated to any 
one of the apostles. It was too responsible a work to 
be entrusted to man — to be exercised at his discretion. 
It requires an infinite mind to do this with safety to 
his government. This converting power, were it 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 65 

granted to man, might be partially and injudiciously 
applied. It is, I think, a far greater miracle for the 
Spirit to convert than to bestow the gifts of tongues 
and prophecies. It is a far nobler achievement of the 
Spirit to take man dead in trespasses and sin^, with an 
understanding that is blind, with a will that is obsti- 
nate, with a conscience that is seared, and transform 
him into the image of God, than to transfer a small 
portion of his miraculous power to a few for a limited 
time. We, therefore, who live in the last days, at this 
time, have advantages which were never enjoyed to the 
same extent under the beginning of the Gospel dispen- 
sation. We have the original evidences of the Apos- 
tolic days, with a cloud of witnesses, and when that 
Spirit shall be poured on all flesh; when all shall 
bear testimony to Christ, the triumph of the Redeemer 
will be complete; the empire of Satan will crumble 
into atoms; the work of the Spirit will then have been 
accomplished. What a glorious change will come 
over the world ! How bright and illustrious will 
shine forth the divinity of Christ! And what thank- 
ful incense will arise from countless altars to that Spirit 
whose agency has accomplished so benign a result! 

The assertion that the Holy Spirit has no other in- 
fluence than that confined in the written Word is in- 
consistent with the idea of his being poured on all 
mankind. They are antagonistic ideas. The one sup- 
poses that Spirit stationary; the other in a state of 
motion. It was on this stationary principle that the 
Romisb priests pretended to work miracles. They 
reasoned themselves into the belief, that as the apostles 

6* 



66 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

had the power to work miracles, that the gift of mira- 
cles was still in the church, with all its original power, 
and as they were the successors of the Apostle Peter, 
it was their prerogative to work miracles. It was no 
part of their policy to distress themselves about the 
saving influences of that Spirit — to them it seemed too 
insignificant. They wished to clothe the Romish 
Church with apostolic grandeur — to throw around her 
the semblance of a Jiigh divinity — to clothe her with 
the power of salvation — to dispense life and death at 
her option. She feigned to work miracles by the most 
ingenious and deceptive arts ; and many an ignorant 
and superstitious devotee claimed for her this divine 
right. But those pretended miracles sank into disre- 
pute ; their absurdity could no longer be tolerated, and 
that which was at first believed by many was subse- 
quently denied by all. 

The written word undoubtedly embodies the teach- 
ings of the Spirit, and these are the exponents of his 
mind. But, besides this, there is another power which 
he puts forth — the power of persuasion. Pie is, so to 
speak, an invisible orator. He speaks to the soul. 
He is the still small voice of God preaching to the con- 
science, and making the sins of the ungodly pass before 
them like a panorama. He holds up the dead body of 
Christ to the eye of the soul, as Antony held up the 
blood-stained mantle of Csesar to the eyes of the Ro- 
mans, and charges the sinner with his death. He 
shows the ungratefulness of the deed, and the dark 
malignity of sin. He shows the rich legacy which 
Christ has bequeathed to them ; and with an appeal 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 67 

peculiar to himself, he moves the sinner to tears. 
He makes him go and bow beside that bleeding body, 
and bathe it with the tears of contrition. He makes 
him hunt up those sins in the inmost recesses of his 
heart, as the Romans, the murderers of Csesar, and 
drag them out from their lurking places, and slay 
them before God. The oratory of the Spirit is equal 
to the magnitude of the cause; the greatness of the in- 
terest at stake, and the melancholy grandeur of the 
occasion. Whether he dwells on the perilous condi- 
tion of the sinner, or on the majesty of God's violated 
law, or on the dark and malignant character of sin; or 
whether he expatiates on the ineffable splendor of hea- 
ven ; or on the painful wailings of the lost ; or whether 
he dwells upon the terrible realities of the judgment 
day, or on the mercy of God, he never fails to excite 
attention ; and often the sinner trembles in his pre- 
sence, and falls upon his knees, and asks imploringly : 
" What must I do to be saved ?" Into what insigni- 
ficancy does this great orator of God throw the most 
splendid oratory of man ? And to confine his power 
to the mere written word is only to circumscribe that 
power within narrower limits. It is to localize it. It 
is to suppose that he has no extemporaneous pow r ers — 
no faculty to seize passing events in the providence of 
God to enforce or illustrate his written truths. It is 
to deny to him any further fund of knowledge or genius 
to move the passions of men. It would be an act of 
injustice to any living orator to circumscribe his influ- 
ence to his written production. All living orators 
proclaim to have a power independent of their written 



63 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

composition. When Patrick Henry so ably defended 
the Baptist preachers in Virginia for their liberty of 
conscience, the people were so overcome with the splen- 
dor of his defence, that they bore him in triumph on 
their shoulders through the crowd. But had he sim- 
ply read the defence, the effect would have been differ- 
ent. It was the subject and the occasion which clothed 
it with such interest. It is for this reason that extem- 
poraneous efforts are more effective. It is for this rea- 
son that the apostles and Christ preached in this way. 
And we can hardly suppose, that the wisdom of God 
would have led him to supersede altogether this mode 
of preaching in the case of the Holy Spirit. When 
iEschines read to his pupils the celebrated speech of 
Demosthenes on the Crown, they admired it; but, says 
he, " You ought to have heard him." 

And so to form a just opinion of the power of the 
Spirit, we must hear him. We must listen to those 
silent, yet powerful arguments which he brings to bear 
upon the sinner's conscience. With what eloquence 
he urges his cause! How he demolishes every foun- 
dation on which the sinner rests for security ! How 
he transports him by the splendor of his imagination 
to the very gates of heaven, and makes him hear the 
sweet notes that fall from angels' lips! or bears him 
headlong to the pit of despair, and terrifies him with 
the waitings of the lost ! The miraculous gift of the 
Spirit and his written production will not be again re- 
enacted in the history of the world; but the pleadings 
of that Spirit will be poured on us like a river, arid 
sometimes like a cataract, overwhelmingly grand, ter- 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 69 

rific and irresistible. Had he less power, the oratory 
of our passions could not be silenced ; the power of sin 
could not be broken. "What, but the oratory of the 
Spirit can subdue the sinner's heart? And for this 
reason we are accustomed to look to his agency to fur- 
ther the grand design of the gospel dispensation ; for 
however faithfully and eloquently this gospel may be 
preached, if the Spirit be wanting, such preaching will 
be like sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. So im- 
portant indeed is the agency of the Spirit to the success 
of the gospel, that the Saviour, the founder of Chris- 
tianity, did not enter upon his public ministry until 
he was anointed by the Holy Spirit. And so was it 
with the apostles. They were not fully qualified with 
the requisite graces until the Spirit enlightened their 
minds, corrected their views, consecrated their hearts, 
and sanctified their affections. It is not strange, there- 
fore, that at the crucifixion of Christ they fled from 
him ; but when they received the Holy Spirit, they 
were transformed in their affections ; they faced the 
torrent of persecution, and died like heroes in defence 
of their faith. The Apostle Paul said, that nothing 
could separate him from the love of God ; and Peter, 
who before denied his Lord, now feels himself unwor- 
thy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. 
There was a vast difference in the views, feelings, faith 
and devotion of the apostles before and after the de : 
scent of the Spirit. In their mission to convert the 
world, they cautiously abstained from ascribing any 
success to their individual labors. Paul says : I have 
planted, and Apollos watered ; but it was God who 



70 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

gave the increase. Indeed, were it not for the active 
agency of the Spirit, I do not see how the Christian 
Church could have sustained itself; how it could have 
prospered as it has done ; how it could have supplanted 
all other forms of religion when brought in competi- 
tion with them ; how it could have survived the sword 
of persecution ; how it could have made the very in- 
struments of its torture advance its principles. Surely 
these results are not to be looked for under ordinary 
circumstances. You do not see these results in the 
Jewish religion. You do not see them advancing by 
religious conquests over the hordes of heathens that 
surrounded them. You do not see the gathering of 
the people around the standard of Judaism. Their 
religion has a form; but that which gives it power is 
wanting. It lacks the transforming energy of the 
Spirit. The only system of religion over which God 
presides and spreads the wings of his protection is that 
of a spiritual Christianity. The Romish church, in 
the days of its civil glory, was never protected by God 
— those days when kings bowed before her sceptre, and 
did her homage; when like Mahomed she carried her 
religion in one hand, and her sword in the other. The 
Spirit of God was never poured on her. Those priests, 
w r ho dragooned the Protestants into their faith under 
penalty of confiscation and death felt not the Spirit of 
God. That church wore the name of Christianity; 
but it was Satan clothing himself in its habiliments. 
The spiritual church of Christ, on which the Spirit has 
been poured, held on its course amid the sternest per- 
secution. It was the burning bush in the wilderness, 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 71 

which could not be consumed. The Spirit was in it 
to sanctify, to bless and sustain, and all the powers of 
hell could not crush it. When the reformation dawned, 
the church came forth from its hiding-places. It no 
longer concealed itself in dens and caves. It came 
forth, and stood up shoulder to shoulder w r ith the 
reformation. It was to them a Pentecostal feast. 
They saw the promise of God breaking into fulfillment 
upon their vision. The dark cloud of persecution, 
which enveloped them for ages, was breaking into sun- 
shine. The printing-press came to their aid, and threw 
its glorious light around in every direction. The 
march of the Church was onward. Liberty to worship 
God was its watchword, and the banners of Protestant- 
ism floated in triumph over Germany. The church 
came forth out of this moral chaos, and breathed more 
freely the air of religious freedom. No power on earth 
could have preserved the Church of God. That Church 
is a spiritual fabric, composed of spiritual materials — 
to be nourished by spiritual elements ; to be guarded 
over by a spiritual agent. Its foundation was laid in 
blood — the blood of the Son of God. The materials 
were made of the tears, the groans, the watchings, the 
sacrifices of the faithful and martyrs ; and God is its 
architect. The Church is his temple. He dwells 
within the Holy of the Holies. The sacred fire burn- 
ing on its altar is the Holy Spirit; and if that Spirit 
be withdrawn ; if its fires become extinct, the Church 
becomes annihilated. It may have a priesthood. It 
may have altars. It may offer sacrifices ; but it can- 
not be the Church on which God promised to pour his 
Spirit in the last days. 



72 THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 

The outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh is nothing 
more nor less than the diffusion of Christianity. It is 
contemplating those changes when the knowledge of 
God shall cover the earth as the waters the deep. And 
although the effusion of the Spirit in this sense has not 
been literally fulfilled ; although all flesh have not as 
yet seen the glory of God ; although the heathen have 
not as yet been given to Christ for his inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession ; 
although the .Jews have not as yet been brought in 
with the fulness of the Gentiles ; yet there are signs in 
the existing state of things, that they shall be. There 
is coming a period when the Spirit will be poured on 
all flesh ; when a nation shall be born in a day; when 
thousands shall be converted under the preaching of a 
single sermon ; when the palace kept by the strong 
man's arm shall be torn from his possession. il For it 
shall come to pass in the last days," says Isaiah, " that 
the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established 
on the top of the mountain, and shall be exalted above 
the hills, and all nations shall flow into it." The 
Christian Church is the mountain of the Lord's house, 
and it is here that God will display his glory and re- 
ceive the homage of his people. The Church of Christ 
is to be the home of the spiritual seed of Abraham. 
All opposition to this Church is to be overcome ; for 
she frowns down upon the hills. The Lord has 
founded the Gospel Zion, and the world will flock 
around her gates with songs and everlasting joys upon 
their heads. Under its glorious and resplendent light, 
the wisdom of philosophy is to be eclipsed. Under its 



THE EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 73 

pure and elevated spirituality, the heathen temples are 
to become desolate; for it is to have a name and an 
everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. 

" Lord send thy word, and let it fly, 
Armed with the Spirit's power ; 
Ten thousands shall confess its sway, 
And bless the saving hour. 

" Peace, with her olives crowned, shall stretch 
Her wings from shore to shore ; 
No trump shall rouse the rage of war, 
No murderous cannon roar. 

" Smile, Lord, on each divine attempt 
To spread the gospel's rays, 
And build on sin's demolished throne 
The temples of thy praise." 



DISCOURSE IV. 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN 
CHURCH. 

Thou art Peter, and on this rock I build my church, and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it. — Matt. xvi. 18. 

I do not believe that Peter was a suitable person, on 
whom Christ should build his church. The Saviour's 
sagacity was too penetrating to lead him into this error. 
He would have compromised, both himself and church, 
had he done so. He was able to read Peter's character 
through ; saw his weak and strong points, and knew 
that it was not in harmony with Heaven's designs to 
build so important a thing as his church upon a frail 
and fallen creature ; that even upon himself, the build- 
ing of the church, though sustained as he was by su- 
pernatural agencies, would require extraordinary efforts 
to crown it with success. In his imagination he saw 
the whole of Peter's life — his boldness and intrepidity 
— his untiring devotion — the fear and trembling that 
would seize him in the hall of Pilate — his denial of him 
— his noble confession : " Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God " — and the rebuke, " Get thee behind 
me, Satan." These facts were all known to him in the 
future, and though Peter's qualities were, generally, 
74 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 75 

known, and favorably regarded, yet they were not suf- 
ficiently influential to induce him to build his church 
on Peter. And the more so, as it conflicted with his 
own claims, his own designs ; for he did not come to 
build his church on another, but on himself; he would 
hardly have sanctioned a rival, and sustained him with 
his authority. 

The employment, too, of the third person, instead of 
the second, tends rather to confirm my conclusion. If 
the Saviour meant to build his church on Peter; he 
would have said, and il On thee do I build my church/' 
and not as it is : " On this rock." The confession of 
Peter himself, is conclusive, for he never at any time 
assumed any prerogative or superiority over the other 
disciples. In his Epistle to the church at Pontus, he 
calls himself a fellow-elder, assuming no higher office 
than a religious teacher. In his Epistles to the churches 
of his charge, he does not call himself the founder of 
those churches, but an Apostle. He seems to repu- 
diate all idea of being the head of the church. In his 
first Epistle, 2d chap, and 4th verse, he says, (alluding 
to Christ) : " To whom coming as the living founda- 
tion stone, rejected indeed of men, but chosen of God, 
and precious." Here Christ is represented by him as 
the living foundation stone of his church. It is worthy 
of notice that at no time did the apostles regard Peter 
as the head of the church. The Apostle Paul said, 
that he was not a whit behind the chief of the apostles. 
And in his letter to the Corinthians, he claims the honor 
of establishing the church at Corinth; not on Peter, 
but on their faith in Christ. He recognizes no supre- 



76 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

macy, but acknowledges the apostles as co-workers 
with him, and that there is no foundation to the spi- 
ritual temple of God, but faith in Christ, as the chief 
corner-stone. ""Who is Paul," says he, "and who is 
Apollos, but ministers of Christ ?" In all of his 
writings and acts, he acknowledged no superior but 
Christ, 

The words of our Saviour are explicit, and can leave 
no doubt on the mind as to whether Peter was the 
foundation stone of his church or himself. When the 
disciples were disputing who should be the greatest in 
the kingdom of heaven, it was then a very proper time 
for him to settle, finally, all differences, by placing 
Peter before them, and saying: "He is the greatest;" 
which he would have done, and ought to have done, if 
he regarded Peter as the head of the church : But not 
so ; he brought a child and said, "Unless ye be converted 
and become as little children, ye cannot enter the king- 
dom of heaven." Christ says, " Come unto me all ye 
that are weary and are heavy-laden, and I will give 
you rest." Such language would be inappropriate if 
Christ regarded Peter as the foundation stone of his 
church : It should be : " Go to Peter, all ye that are 
weary and heavy-laden, and he will give you rest." 
And he says again : " One is your master, even Christ, 
and ye are brethren." " I am Alpha and Omega." 
"I am the door, the good shepherd. I am the w r ay, 
the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father 
but by me." 

The nature of the church which Christ came to or- 
ganize is such, that no one could be its head or founda- 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 77 

tion stone who was not spiritual and immaculate. The 
Saviour himself found it necessary to make provisions 
after his death for a spiritual agent to succeed him, en- 
dowed with supreme power to watch over the interest 
of his church. That Spirit was endowed with the pro- 
perties of the Deity — his office was to take of the things 
of Christ and present them unto us — to be present 
everywhere, in every believer's heart, at one and the 
same time. No other agent could be found but a di- 
vine one to accomplish this successfully. Hence Peter 
could not have been the proper person on whom to rest 
the responsibility of piloting the church through the 
seas of corruption to a triumphant end. That person 
must possess the mind of Christ ; he must be omnis- 
cient; he must know the thoughts of the Deity, where 
and when special influences are to be exercised; how 
much power is to be employed to effect given ends. 
Unless, therefore, by some miraculous change produced 
in Peter, of which we have no knowledge, his nature 
unfitted him to sustain the responsibility of maintaining 
the integrity of the church. Unless he possessed divine 
qualifications — unless he was all spirit, omniscient, all- 
pervading, like the Deity, the church could not exist 
long, much less sustain itself, as it has so successfully 
done, against the long series of persecutions that so vio- 
lently assailed it. 

But it is said that the keys given to Peter is indica- 
tive of superiority. If so, then the other disciples pos- 
sessed equal distinction, for the keys were given to all. 
Christ addressed them all through Peter. In the 18th 
chap, of Matth., and the 18th verse, Christ said the 

7* 



78 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

same thing to the disciples : " Whatsoever things ye 
shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven." If 
Peter possessed the power of remitting sins, the other 
disciples also possessed the same power ; for Christ says 
to his disciples in John, 20th chap, and 23d verse : 
" Whosesoever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted, and 
whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained/' If Peter 
was filled with the Holy Ghost, so were the other dis- 
ciples, as we are informed by Luke. No inference of 
superiority can be drawn from this circumstance, since 
the keys were given to all the disciples. Nor should 
the nature of these keys involve us in perplexity. The 
Saviour often indulged in metaphors. Thus he says 
of himself: I am the door, I am the good shepherd, 
but literally he was neither ; and when he said to Peter, 
and through him to the other disciples : I give thee the 
keys, the language is metaphorical. If Christ be a 
door there ought to be keys to unlock him. The figu- 
rative meaning of the keys is the unlocking of the door 
of redemption through Christ. It should be remem- 
bered that none of the apostles preached the Gospel to 
the world, while Christ was in the flesh ; and it was not 
until after his resurrection that he gave them the right 
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature. This commission was really the keys, the 
unlocking of the great heavenly truth, that Christ came 
into the world to save sinners. On the day of Pente- 
cost, forty days after the resurrection of Christ, Peter 
was the first who unlocked the door of mercy to a sin- 
ruined world, and then the other disciples, generally, 
in their dispersion after the stoning of Stephen. Peter, 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 79 

no doubt, possessed special qualifications to take the 
lead, as a missionary, as our Judson had done in Bur- 
mah ; but no special precedent was given to him. To 
preach the gospel, to organize churches, to excommuni- 
cate the bad, and retain the good, with the additional 
privilege of working miracles, were enjoyed in common 
by all the disciples, and w T ith the exception of working 
miracles, are rights now exercised by all the ministers 
of Christ. 

The original name of Peter was Simon, but the Sa- 
viour changed it to Cephas, meaning a stone. The 
language is a metaphor, and means firmness, stability, 
strength. By attaching the figurative meaning to 
Peter, the subject of our text may appear clearer. 
Thou art firm, and on this firmness of thy faith in me, 
as the Messiah, do I build my church, and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it. The building of 
the church of Christ, permanently, does not depend, 
altogether, on our confessing him, as the Messiah ; for 
this confession may be fickle, like that of Simon Magus, 
and the church built on such faith as his could have no 
permanent existence. The stability of the Christian 
church is essentially connected with an unwavering 
faith in Christ — a faith that will peril all — home, coun- 
try, friends, and even life itself, rather than forfeit the 
approbation of God, or compromise its principles. Upon 
such a faith, as is figuratively meant by a rock, will 
Christ build his church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. On the unbroken continuance of 
such a faith alone, could the Christian church be esta- 
blished forever. The perpetuity of that faith, however, 



80 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

could not be confined to one, for at the death of that 
one the faith would cease ; but the perpetuity of the 
church depends upon an unbroken succession of faith 
in his followers. Hence the stability of the church 
does not depend upon Peter, individually, but upon all 
whose faith in Christ shall be as firm as his. The faith 
of Peter is meritorious and influential only so long as 
he lived. At his death his faith was consummated, 
and the church needs the continuance of successive 
faiths to sustain its progress. The Church militant is 
the foundation of the Church triumphant. It is the 
fountain that supplies the Church in Heaven with im- 
perishable and sanctified materials to perpetuate the 
glory of the Redec nier. It is not in the nature of God's 
economy that Peter's faith shall stand in the stead of 
others ; for this would des'roy the necessity of indivi- 
dual experience in religion, and the purity of heaven 
be compromised by the admission of the unconverted. 
Peter possessed no power to transfer his faith to his 
successors in the apostolic line, admitting his supremacy 
to be scriptural, which I deny; for facts teach us that 
some of his successors were far from being religious 
men ; and were the Church dependent on them for its 
continuance, it could boast of no perpetuity. To say 
the least, there would be a suspension in the virtue that 
gave to Peter this pretended distinction as the head of 
the Church, and in that suspension the spiritual power 
of the Church would cease. A succession of faithful 
believers in Christ is the only condition on which he 
could permanently build his Church. 

Suppose, for instance, God should say to the Sun, 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 81 

" Thou art the source of light, heat, life and beauty to 
the planets, and on thee shall they continue, and no 
human power shall destroy them." This would be all 
correct ; for the sun is understood to be a permanent 
thing — a settled fixture for all time. But if that sun, 
by a fixed law, like human life, shall become extinct 
in thirty or forty years, the language would be inap- 
propriate and absurd. The address would be put in 
this form : " Thou art the Sun, and on those proper- 
ties peculiar to thee shall those planets continue, and no 
power shall destroy them." This would imply the 
succession of other suns, identically the same as the one 
addressed. Should one of those suns in the order of 
succession prove to be a globe of ice, the inhabitants of 
the planets would perish, if no other source of light and 
heat could be found equal to its predecessor. No less 
true would this be in a spiritual point of view, if the 
successors of Peter's faith were not men of equal piety, 
zeal, and devotion with himself. But, fortunately, the 
stability of the Church of Christ depends not upon one 
separately, but on all combined, priests and laymen, 
women, and responsible children ; for they, in the aggre- 
gate, constitute his church. 

We do not deny but that Peter was a warm and de- 
voted follower of Christ; that his faith was vigorous* 
and that his zeal sometimes transported him into im- 
propiypties ; that he took the lead in his official capa- 
city. His native disposition inspired him to this, more 
probably, than from any superiority which he claimed, 
either spiritually or intellectually. A candid investi- 
gation of all the circumstances in question will lead to 



82 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

the conclusion that the Church of Christ is not built on 
Peter per se, but on the properties of his faith, which 
are absolutely essential to the perpetuity of the Chris- 
tian Church on earth. There are parallel cases in the 
history of the Church where the exercise of just such 
a faith, zeal, and devotion, peculiar to Peter, saved the 
Church from annihilation. In all such cases, the faith 
of Peter is reproduced, not in himself, personally, but 
in his successors in the Church. The foundation of 
the Christian Church is laid in the twelve apostles con- 
jointly, not separately, Christ himself being the chief 
corner-stone. The superstructure of that Church is de- 
pendent upon those who shall subsequently believe in 
Christ. If after the death of the apostles no one es- 
poused the cause of the Messiah, the Church could boast 
of nothing but simply a foundation. The superstruc- 
ture, the real beauty, grandeur, and glory of the Church, 
would have no existence at all, and the designs of Christ* 
with regard to man's redemption would be a nullity. 
The heathen world would not be given to him for his 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his 
possession. There would be nothing in it to excite our 
admiration, to stimulate our exertions, to enlist our 
sympathies, to sanctify our affections, and connect our 
imagination with the infinite and the sublime. 

It is not my intention, however, to discuss this sub- 
ject. We can never be reasoned into the belief that 
Christ would build his Church upon a human being, 
no matter how wise and faultless he may be. And its 
inconsistency is so glaring, so opposed to the spirit of 
the Bible, that some of the Catholics repudiate Peter's 



THE STABILITY OF TRE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 83 

supremacy, and consider nothing more to be meant than 
his confession of Christ as the Messiah. We Protest- 
ants can see no utility, no wisdom in building the 
Church upon any other foundation than Christ and the 
apostles, whose teachings and whose blood form the 
vital elements of its existence, its success, its glory, its 
triumph and its immortality. 

The Church, to which reference is here had, is the 
spiritual Church of Christ, the Church composed of 
those only who believe upon him, savingly, who accept 
him as the only hope of redemption, and who yield 
obedience to him. This Church has its members scat- 
tered in all denominations, more or less. No one visible 
Church can claim to be the true Church to the exclu- 
sion of all others. Nor is the continuance of a Church, 
even under the fiercest persecution, a proof of its truth, 
or the Church against which the gates of hell shall not 
prevail. The Jewish people on this ground may con- 
tend that their Church is the true Church ; because, 
though persecuted, driven as exiles, proscribed and put 
to death, they still survive, one and the same, and of 
longer duration than any other Church. And the Pro- 
testants might say they are the true Church ; because, 
though persecuted, they maintained their integrity. 
The continuance of any religious body is no evidence 
that they are the special and favorite Church of God. 
I admit that it makes some difference as to which 
Church a man belongs, because it is his duty to belong 
to that Church which approaches nearer the New Tes- 
tament Church ; but still, the grand requisition is to be 
born of the Spirit, for in no other way can Church fel- 



84 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

lowship save us, no matter how apostolic our creed may 
be. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and 
without holiness no man can enter the kingdom of hea- 
ven. It is not the intention of Christ to gather all his 
members into one body in one visible Church. That 
would be unwise, and under existing circumstances 
very difficult ; but they remain in their scattered state, 
members of different religious associations, or organi- 
zations, that they may act like leaven, diffusing their 
influence, and accomplishing thereby more good in the 
aggregate. The United States is composed of many 
States ; each State is independent, with its laws pecu- 
liar to itself, as a State; yet each citizen is a member 
of the Republic; and so there are different churches, 
Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Ca- 
tholic, Baptist, yet each member of these churches who 
is truly born of the Spirit, is a member of the spiritual 
Church of Christ, who is the federal head, and sucfi 
members constitute the Church, against which the 
gates of hell shall not prevail. It is not the name, nor 
the organization, nor the creed, that makes the spiritual 
Church, but faith in Christ, the rock. The thief on 
the cross was not a member of any Church, he made no 
profession of any creed, yet he had faith, and that faith 
saved him, protected him against the gates of hell. A 
spirit that knocks at the gate of Heaven for admission, 
and urges his claims upon the ground that'he belonged 
to the Catholic Church, or any other Church, without 
possessing the necessary faith in Christ, will be refused 
as promptly as though he belonged to no Church at 
all. I think it is time for us to see that something 
more than Church membership is needed to save us. 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 85 

The gates of hell mean the power of hell. Among 
the Hebrew rustics, who had lawsuits to settle, as it 
was extremely inconvenient to meet in the city, they 
met at the gates of the city, and there the civil power 
was exercised ; and from this circumstance gates came 
to be used in the sense of powers. The palace of the 
Sultan of Turkey is called the Porte, because there, at 
the palace, the law is dispensed. 

The first power directed against the Church was that 
which Constantine employed to crush out the few who 
adhered to its primitive simplicity, and who would not 
yield their faith to the behest of the Pope. Many re- 
fused, and some of the noblest of both sexes suffered 
martyrdom. The tide of persecution rolled on like a 
flood, and many a pious man, woman, and child were 
sacrificed upon the altar of this Moloch. But as these 
perished others would take their places, and so the 
Church held on, sustained by an invisible power, till 
their enemies in turn acknowledged their impotency. 
The recent events in Prance and Italy are no doubt 
providential, and are intended to lessen the power of 
the Pope, so that liberty of conscience may be as free 
within the walls of Rome, as in these United States. 
That the light of a liberal Christianity is breaking ou 
the world, is as clear as the noon-day sun. Freedom to 
worship God is man's heritage, and God, who endowed 
us with that love of freedom, will foster it. The mo- 
ral world was for many years in a state of preparation 
— a state of development for the enjoyment of that 
freedom — and when there was a fitness, a ripeness in 
the people to enjoy it, it came as a natural consequence. 
8 



86 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

Cromwell could not have dethroned Charles, the King 
of England, unless he was aided by the Puritans. The 
divine right of kings; the proscription of the dissent- 
ers of England ; the arrogant claims advanced by the 
loyalists ; the invasion of the rights of conscience, were 
the principal causes that produced those civil wars, that 
desolated England. The right of conscience in Eng- 
land is now generally respected. The Church of Christ 
stood its ground manfully, though it had suffered much. 
It sow^ed its seed on this continent. The tree of liberty 
here took root, and has sprung up and grown to large 
proportions, and yields a grateful shade to the weary 
and distressed. 

Soon after the Reformation by Luther there was 
another power directed against the Church — an eccle- 
siastical power, viz. : the Council of Trent. For 
eighteen years was this Council in session, forming 
decrees to exterminate the reformation. The most in- 
genious plans were formed to accomplish it. They 
anathematized and excommunicated all who favored 
it ; wars and bloodshed were frequent, and it is said, 
that the Invincible Armada had this object in view. 
The Inquisition was more rigidly enforced ; the most 
terrible persecution was carried on in Germany; 
Bohemia, and the soils of Poland, Lithuania and 
Hungary were deluged with the blood of Pro- 
testants. Holland, France, England, Ireland and 
Scotland shared the same fate. And what is remarka- 
ble, as one religious sect gained the ascendency, that 
sect would persecute till the blood of their opponents 
flowed to satiety. Be it said, however, to the honor of 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 87 

the Moravians, the Quakers, and the Baptists, that in 
those dark and trying times they never dipped their 
hands in the blood of their brothers. Roger Williams 
has the honor of being the warmest advocate of liberty 
of conscience. He took the right view of the subject, 
and with a perseverance worthy of him, rolled back 
the darkness of ages. John Owen, Milton the poet, 
John Locke, sustained him ; and the ball of religious 
freedom kept rolling and gathering force, till no one 
now presumes to persecute. Nothing can be more 
presumptuous than for one man to decide the religion 
for another; for all men to think alike, all men must 
be born alike. One man has as much right to his 
religious faith as another. Persecution had its origin 
in the bosom of Satan. Christianity and persecution 
cannot go hand in hand. The Saviour opposed it in 
his life, and especially when he commanded Peter to 
put up his sword. The man or denomination that 
persecutes is a Cain, and the curse of heaven will be 
written upon his brow. Persecution has never an- 
swered the end designed. It is opposed to that prin- 
ciple of morality that requires us to do to others what 
we would expect them to do for us under the same cir- 
cumstances. Persecution has never failed to exasperate 
the feelings of men. It destroys Christianity, instead 
of advancing it. It is a foe to society in consigning 
to death the best men ; for none but the best are 
selected to appease its vindictiveness. As we cast our 
eyes over Europe, we find all denominations of promi- 
nence in the full exercise of their religious rights. 
The Romish Church has recently lost its temporal 



88 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

power; but on this account she becomes more Scriptu- 
ral. " My kingdom," says Christ, " is not of this 
world." The Church of England is becoming more 
generous and liberal, and certainly more pious. The 
Dissenters are advancing rapidly in education, in 
wealth, in intelligence and piety. The light of re- 
demption in Europe is shining with an increased bril- 
liancy, and an enlightened Christianity has taken deep 
root in the moral soil of its populace, and the work of 
redemption moves forward. In our country we see 
great changes. Schools, colleges, religious papers for 
old and young, and cheap religious literature are almost 
as diffusive as the sun-light; while the most splendid 
pulpit talents are accessible to all. Sin, it is true, 
abounds, and the love of many wdxeth cold; but, 
nevertheless, the Church moves on, separately, it is 
true, like the planets, or our states, but all its members 
recognize Christ as the central Head, the magnet of 
their attraction, as the way, the truth, and the life, the 
pillar, the corner-stone of their redemption. In death 
they are gathered in the bosom of the Church Trium- 
phant ; crowns of imperishable glory are theirs, and 
their unity with Christ shall be public. 

The Church now has not a crude infidelity to deal 
with as formerly. The infidel has changed his ground. 
He looks upon religion now as a part of man's nature; 
as something inwoven in his constitution, which he 
will cherish, and from which he expects to derive all 
his happiness. When the uncultivated generally em- 
braced Christianity, the conceited wise men of this 
world could not penetrate into the power of a living 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 89 

faith ; and its followers were said to be under the in- 
fluence of priestly domination; and Voltaire sought to 
establish a millennium without dependence on God's 
influence to sustain it; and the consequence was an 
age of terror, injustice, anarchy and bloodshed. The 
truth is, there can be no safety to society that does not 
recognize God in its religion. Since such distinguished 
men as Sir Isaac Newton, Lord Bacon, Dr. Gregory, 
Robert Hall, Dr. Chalmers, Professor Morse, Dr. 
Good, and- Cuvier embraced Christianity — men of 
high and varied accomplishments — the infidel has be- 
come shy about charging the Christian religion as the 
offspring of some superstitious mind. The infidel falls 
back, and takes cover under the plea of rationalism. 

No man now presumes to say, that Christianity had 
its origin in the brain of some deluded fanatic. The 
Hebrews of this age, whose fathers urged on the death 
of Christ, regard the Christian religion as a most ex- 
cellent institution. Its generous nature, its humanity, 
its ameliorating influences, receive their warmest ap- 
probation ; and some have contributed to build Chris- 
tian churches. Such a change seems to favor the idea 
that the Christian religion is yet to be the most popu- 
lar. The heathens acknowledge the superiority of the 
Christian faith; their religion grows dim before it; 
their altars become vacant, and their temples are ne- 
glected and forsaken. The rock on which Christ built 
his Church has grown exceedingly large. Its influence 
is felt in every zone, and its saving power is acknow- 
ledged by foes and by friends. He must increase till 
all nations shall bow before him. 

8* 



90 THE STABILITY OE THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

The reason why the Church of Christ cannot be 
destroyed is because it is founded in the necessity of 
our nature, and had an existence co-eval with man, 
though not demonstrated ; and hence to destroy this 
religion, you must destroy man, who made the exist- 
ence of that religion necessary. Phidias, the sculptor, 
produced a statue of Minerva, on the shield of which 
he had wrought his own image so ingeniously that you 
could not remove the image without destroying the 
shield. So the religion of Christ is so artistically 
wrought in the nature of man, that they cannot exist 
separately. Man finds in this religion precisely what 
he desires — what Plato and Socrates longed for, but 
which they could not grasp, because of the mists and 
vapors that darkened their vision. They knew that 
such a religion existed ; but they could not find it, so 
as to appropriate it, and feel its saving power. Were 
they living, however, in the days of the apostles, they 
would have seen it, believed it, and felt it, and in the 
plenitude of their joy, exclaimed : " We have found ; 
we have found it." 

It is for this reason that wherever Christianity goes 
she carries with her a power — an irresistible power — 
that makes the soul willing, however repulsive its doc- 
trines may be to the carnal feelings. Each person 
converted adds power to the church, just as each birth 
adds to our population ; that spiritual birth brings 
along with it energy, wealth, influence, intelligence, 
power, and gives the Church a succession of vigorous 
members. No one presumes that the inhabitants of 
the earth will all die at once; but that as the old die, 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 91 

they will be succeeded by others, and that the popula- 
tion will increase rather than diminish : so the power 
of reproduction will be carried on in the Church. 
Spiritual births in the Church will be more frequent 
than deaths, and the wave of membership will flow on 
till the Church shall become the glory of the world. 
The reproducing cause may not be so great now ; but 
the time will come when a nation may be born in a 
day. No man who regards his respectability in society 
is now opposed to Christianity. Those who profess it 
are among the most worthy and intelligent. The dis- 
courses of the pulpit, to say nothing of their moral and 
spiritual power, are becoming more attractive. Men 
of wealth and learning every day are espousing it. 
Jonathan Edwards, with his powerful intellect, during 
his life felt it not beneath him to be a preacher of its 
truths. Through the force of reason he would approach 
and storm the hearts of the gifted ungodly. All per- 
manent changes must originate with the mind and 
affection. Science does not conflict with religion ; they 
go hand in hand. Truth can never be successfully 
crushed. It may seem annihilated ; but in the end it 
will triumph. The Hebrews did not crush out the 
truth when they crucified the Lord of glory. The 
corner-stone stood there still in defiant and silent gran- 
deur, mocking their fruitless anger. It rose on the 
day of Pentecost. The Jewish Sanhedrim met in coun- 
cil, and said : " The Messiah is a fiction ;" but th's did 
not affect the truth : it still rolled on impetuously, 
dashing and crushing out every attempt of its enemies. 
The prophecies rose up in their majesty ; the wonder- 



92 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

ful works which Christ accomplished stood forth to 
vindicate his claims; till it became an established fact, 
that Christ crucified was the power of God and the 
wisdom of God to them that believe. 

There are two kinds of monuments ; the one of art, 
and the other of morality. The former have lived for 
many ages. We love to gaze on them as memorials 
of the past — ruined cities — broken arches — dilapi- 
dated temples — decayed monuments — crumbling towers 
— and the shattered and moss-covered Coliseum. They 
still speak to us of the genius that created them ; but 
they have lost their primitive glory, if not their inter- 
est, and the hand of time will eventually waste them 
away. But not so with those moral monuments which 
an active faith in Christ creates. It points us to the 
apostles as the monuments of its genius, who illustrated 
in their lives the noblest virtues. It points us to the 
many who have in different ages reflected the image of 
Him, the immaculate, and of whom the world is not 
worthy. It points us to heathen lands where the 
traces of its glorious footsteps are seen in schools and 
churches and smiling villages. It points us to those 
homes once miserable, where poverty stalked in all its 
gauntness, now happy and luxurious. It points us to 
those countries, once sterile and bleak, that are now 
blushing like the rose. It points us to those healing, 
reviving and healthful influences that are transforming 
this world of wilderness into a paradise. To say that 
the gates of hell shall prevail against such a religion, 
is to say what God never intended to be said, and what 
shall never come to pass. That religion bears the 



THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHU1 CH. 93 

stamp of the Deity, and it will and must accomplish 
its purpose. It had a definite object in view, and that 
object it has steadily kept in its eye 3 and is pushing on 
to accomplish it. When the earth shall be redeemed ; 
when sin fchall be no longer a part of our nature, then 
faith in Christ will be superseded by some nobler con- 
dition, some higher change. Faith will be swallowed 
up in victory, and this planet will become a new hea- 
ven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

If God wills the victory of the Church, who can 
destroy it? Can science do it? No. She loves the 
truth, and vindicates it. Can infidelity do it? No. 
She has tried and failed, and blushingly owns her im- 
potency. Can civil power do it ? No. It has failed 
in the experiment, and now protects it. Can ecclesi- 
astical power do it ? No. She is ashamed of her de- 
crees, and is a penitent at the shrine of injured virtue. 
Can man individually do it? No. He has tried like 
Saul of Tarsus; but his hand grew palsied, and his 
weapon fell powerless at his feet. Can the gates of 
hell do it? No. For a stronger power opposes them, 
and says: "So far shall ye go, and no farther." 

The brightest stars of the firmament, compared to 
the Church of Christ in its glory, grow dim. They 
lose their diamond-like splendor. Their beautiful 
songs and choruses are cold and spiritless, when con- 
trasted with the theme of redemption. He who is a 
member of this Church rise3 in importance. He as- 
sumes his true dignity. He bairns allegiance and bro- 
therhood with angels. His faith in Christ brightens, 
expands his vision, enlarges his capacities, beautifies 



94 THE STABILITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 

his nature, gives sublimity to his efforts, and makes 
him an angel in disguise, a deity in humility. In 
Christ, the rock, are accumulated vat treasures for 
man's present and future indulgence. The establish- 
ment of this Church, with Christ as its centre, with 
angels as its ministers, and the Spirit as its sanctifier, 
is the overflowing of God's benevolence ; the concen- 
tration of the scattered elements of His benignity. 
And hence the believer feels no dread. The storm 
may howl; the earth may quake; the thunder may 
roar; the lightning may flash; war may desolate; the 
pestilence may blight ; pride may scorn ; poverty may 
chill; friends may forsake ; yet amid all, the believer 
is firm and immovable in Christ, the rock, the foun- 
dation of the Church, on which he has built his hope; 
for he knows that it has God fur its author, Christ for 
its Redeemer, the Spirit for its Sanctifier, and immor- 
tality for its end. On faith in Christ, as the rock, the 
Christian Church is built, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it. 

"Lord, thy Church is still thy dwelling, 
Still is precious in thy sight, 
Judah's temple far excelling, 
Beaming with the gospel's light. 

" On the rock of ages founded, 

What can shake her sure repose? 
With salvation's wall surrounded, 
She can smile at all her foes." 



DISCOURSE V. 



THE IMMOKTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

" If a man die, will he live again? "—Job. xiv. 14. 

" Beyond the flight of time, 

Beyond the reign of death, 
There surely is some clime, 

Where life is not a breath, 
Nor life's affections transient fire 
Whose sparks fly upward and expire." 

The question which of all others is of most im- 
portance to us, is the future state of man. Is he 
simply a creature of mortality, or does he survive the 
darkness of the grave? Is death annihilation, or only 
a passage to another state of existence more favorable 
to the expansion of the soul? The sentiment of Job, 
that he should see God, though his body perished, was 
worthy of his faith ; and it has been endorsed by the 
pious of all ages. It is not particularly necessary to 
discuss the soul's immortality by metaphysical argu- 
ments. The mass of men have not the time to engage 
in controversy, and the arguments, whether moral or 
physical, can effect but little in minds who cherish 
the souPs immortality upon higher authority. The 
leisure and capacity requisite for such speculative sub- 

95 



96 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

jects are not generally enjoyed by mankind, and few, 
comparatively, can appreciate its benefit. Successive 
application may throw some additional light upon the 
subject, but every effort will go to prove that matter 
has no power of its own to think, to plan, to execute, 
and that philosophy could never simplify this subject 
so as to make it conducive to the moral and religious 
elevation of our race. There was a necessity that the 
soul's immortality should be taught by a special messen- 
ger from Heaven, whose authority would be considered 
conclusive. The teachings of such a person, sustained 
by unquestionable miracles, would carry with them 
something of the force of demonstration, and inspire 
the bosom with a higher order of docility. The author 
of Christianity has accomplished this ; and the frailest, as 
well as the most gifted intellect, can take pleasure in 
the contemplation of the souPs immortality. What- 
ever the skeptic may think, it is certain that the brain 
is not the sole originator of its thoughts. The existence 
of an invisible, intelligent agent must be presumed. 
The most skillful research will fail to identify the 
location of the soul, yet such a research will concede 
its existence. The death of the body does not, neces- 
sarily, involve the destruction of the soul. They con- 
stitute two distinct existences. The difference is, the 
body may be dissected and analyzed, but the soul is 
incapable of either. It moves in a higher order of 
existence, and is of finer organism. The theory that 
matter cannot be annihilated will apply equally to the 
soul. The body in its structure was intended for the 
earth, and the soul for the occupation of heaven. 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 97 

It is claimed by the infidel, and conceded by the 
pious, that no one has penetrated the future, and re- 
turned with information based on experience ; but the 
soul's immortality is none the less real for the want of 
this evidence. There are hidden laws, which operate 
upon the mind, aside from those which address them- 
selves to our senses. The blind man is sensible of his 
proximity to a dwelling, by the change he feels in the 
atmosphere. His nerves, in this case, become as it were 
eyes to him. He does not see, but he feels the pre- 
sence of some building by the changed density of the 
atmosphere. A solitary case may be a delusion ; but 
when every blind man feels the same influence, and 
shares the same impression, they, in these cases, are 
governed by a law as certain as those of sight or 
hearing. And so when all nations, kindreds, tongues 
and people feel and declare that the soul's immortality 
is a conviction which they cannot suppress ; we must 
concede man's immortality to be a reality, and not a 
delusion. Conjectures, founded upon reason and 
analogy, are not to be rejected. Columbus, the great 
navigator, though he had never seen, nor probably 
heard of this western hemisphere, yet concluded there 
must be such a continent. His knowledge of the 
physical world taught him that beyond the ocean there 
ought to be another hemisphere to balance the eastern. 
Reason sustained him, and though he could not 
demonstrate his theory, because he could not see the 
land, yet he felt certain of its existence ; and his per- 
severance attested the sincerity of his belief, while his 
discoveries confirmed his conjectures. 



98 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

Upon a similar mode of reasoning Sir William Her- 
schel concluded that other stars existed to make our 
planetary system perfect, though he could not see them, 
that nevertheless they existed, and that, too, at certain 
points in the heavens. And when he afterwards ap- 
plied his powerful telescope, lo ! the heretofore invisible 
stars dawned upon his vision. And so astronomers, 
generally, from circumstances and analogy, believe 
that the other planets are inhabited, not because they 
have visited them, but because the present plan and state 
of things here would render those planets unfinished 
and imperfect if they were not occupied. Upon a 
similar mode of reasoning we infer the soul's immor- 
tality. We see in man evidences of design, which 
shadow forth a future existence. We see him possessed 
of extraordinary powers, beyond what is necessary for 
the purposes of subsistence. We see him dissatisfied, 
as he advances in life, and is longing for purer and 
holier scenes than he has yet seen — his imagination 
paints a future, where the turmoils of life shall cease ; 
where disease shall not emaciate the body ; where 
tyranny shall not oppress ; where friendship shall not 
grow cold ; where love and confidence shall be per- 
petual, and benevolence unwearied. These anticipa- 
tions betray the existence of a nature within, whose 
destiny is not earth, but heaven ; for we cannot sup- 
pose that God would awaken and encourage these de- 
sires, if there be no foundation for them, and no dis- 
position on his part to gratify them. 

The mind, though unable to penetrate the deep re- 
cesses of the future, yet feels that it is not doomed to 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 99 

annihilation ; that the elements of immortality, with 
which the soul is impregnated, will survive the disso- 
lution of the sepulchre, and indulge in those occupa- 
tions which were the chief sources of its felicity on 
earth. The genius of Milton and Shakspeare, the 
artistic skill of Rubens and Phidias, the philosophical 
knowledge of Newton and Bacon, will find a wider 
scope for the exercise of their capacities ; while the 
devotional feelings of the prophets, the apostles and 
martyrs, will glow with a holier enthusiasm. We are 
grateful to Socrates, to Plato, to Cyrus, and to Cato 
for the firmness with which they advocated the souFs 
immortality. Their testimony was but the response 
of the divinity within. The plea of the skeptic, that 
the brain originates its own thoughts is based upon 
arguments more presumptive than conclusive. Matter 
has none of the properties of thought. The brain is 
the instrument on which the soul strikes the key-note 
of thought, and puts in motion the delicate mechanism 
of the brain, which at times may seem to think, when 
the soul suspends its operation. But those sleepy 
thoughts are nothing but the prolonged and fitful 
vibrations of the original impulse of the soul, which 
the mental organism, in obedience to its hidden laws, 
evolves. The telegraphic operator touches the key of 
his instrument, and the message flashes along the wire, 
yet he may be asleep when the message arrives. The 
musician touches the key of his instrument, and long 
after he has withheld his fingers, the instrument is 
musical with the glow of its first vibrations. The 
brain does not and cannot think of itself. It is an in- 



100 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

strument of thought, subjected to the master spirit of 
the man, the soul, that makes it speak forth in strains 
of intellectual melody. The brain is an indispensable 
appendix to the soul, through whose agency the soul 
is able to photograph, so to speak, upon its surface in 
infinitesimal characters the thoughts and images of life, 
that the microscopic eye of memory may comprehend 
them at a glance. The connection of the soul with the 
brain, a material substance, was necessary in order to 
communicate with the outer world. The soul is the 
real divinity that stirs within, an essence of the Su- 
preme, guiding the functions of the body, and by dis- 
cipline and experience is preparing itself for a higher 
sphere of action. It was the misfortune of Socrates to 
suffer martyrdom for advancing this beautiful, if not 
original conception. 

The connection of the soul with the body is too in- 
tricate to be explained by ordinary modes of reasoning. 
It has been demonstrated, that a partial destruction of 
the brain does not seriously impair the mental facul- 
ties. The shrinking of the brain in old age or in- 
firmities, though it affects the vigor of the mind, yet is 
no evidence that the conscious self in man is mortal. 
"VVe know that the brain, as such, is capable, by exer- 
cise, of expansion ; that it partakes of the changes 
peculiar to matter. The destruction of the instrument 
on which the musician holds in breathless silence his 
auditors does not necessarily involve the destruction of 
the musician. Place before him another instrument, 
and his artistic skill will inspire you with its original 
power. And so the weakness of the brain by age does 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 101 

not imply a corresponding weakness of the soul. If 
the brain, the instrument, is weak, out of order, the 
thoughts will not be so vigorous and glowing, and the 
intellectual melody not so sweet ; but the fault is not 
in the soul, the musician, but in the brain, the instru- 
ment. The destruction of the one does not necessarily 
involve the destruction of the other. If men, therefore, 
are not drawn to the contemplation of the souPs im- 
mortality, it is not because that subject is not clearly 
taught by reason and revelation ; it is not because man 
is averse to the contemplation of the future, nor because 
he places a less value upon a permanent inheritance ; 
nor because he denies the resurrection of Christ and 
the future of rewards and punishments; but simply 
because he is indifferent, because the present objects 
have more influence with him, and because his plea- 
sure and conveniences are more identified with them. 
It is only when death approaches man, that he feels 
his high destiny — his God-like distinction — feels that 
his soul is immortal, an exile from Heaven, a wander- 
ing star from its orbit, a ray of the Deity, a drop of 
the ocean of eternity. You may reason with him then, 
if you please, and tell him the soul is mortal, that 
death is annihilation, and he will laugh you to scorn. 

" 'Tis immortality, 'tis that alone 
Amid life's pains, abasements, emptiness, 
The soul can comfort, elevate and fill, 
That only, and that amply this performs. " 

Science cannot controvert this hope of the Christian. 
To him the soul's immortality is as clear as the noon- 

9* 



102 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

day sun. His faith seizes the soul-inspiring doctrine 
and looks heavenward. He asks for no demonstra- 
tion, for he knows that the subject is beyond the scope 
of scientific investigation ; that human philosophy 
must here own its weakness, and faith assert its supre- 
macy ; that the foundation and the superstructure of 
the Christian system is a mystery, and that the soul's 
immortality, a part of that system, must remain at 
present a mystery. His thoughts glow with enthu- 
siasm, as he reflects on this subject, for he recognizes 
in this immortality a heavenly distinction. He knows 
that the chemist cannot analyze the properties of the 
soul — cannot tell what are the constituent elements of 
thought, perception and consciousness, and that all his 
experiments will end in confusion, and the verdict of 
the world in favor of the soul's immortality, will still 
rule in the ascendant. 

The connection of the soul with the body was a part 
of Heaven's economy, to endow it with experience, 
skill and ability, to lay the foundation of its future 
bliss upon a broader and deeper foundation, that it 
may hereafter occupy a body of higher organization, 
and in its new relation to touch some other key-notes 
of thought upon strings of sweeter melody and loftier 
inspirations. The present state of man may be one of 
pupilage, a dawn of a more glorious destiny. It is 
hardly to be presumed, that those noble, uncultivated 
intellects which meet us in every turn of life are ever 
to remain so. The few blazing intellectual stars that 
have thrown their splendor over an admiring world, 
are not exceptions, but samples of what shall be here- 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 103 

after, heralds that proclaim the future nobility of man, 
when mortality shall put on immortality. The voice 
of reason and religion teach me, that manias never 
intended forever to crawl on the earth like a worm — 
forever to spin and weave like a spider — forever to 
inure his shoulders to burdens, like the beasts. The 
signs of the times are more luminous, and the evidences 
of immortality more transparent. The height to 
which the human intellect has risen, forms a monu- 
ment whose lofty summit pierces the dusky shadows 
of eternity, and intimates a glorious future to man. 
These intellectual examples are shadows of a glorious 
substance, signboards stationed midway between heaven 
and earth, pointing to those Elysian fields of bliss, 
where the intellect, now cramped, chilled, and debased, 
shall find its proper and legitimate sphere of ac- 
tion. 

There are mental qualities in man which seem un- 
adapted to the present state of his existence. They 
seem to be in a state of suspense, waiting for the dawn 
of a new era, in which the souPs existence will find all 
its powers and faculties brought into active requisition. 
Under the impassioned glow of that new era, patriot- 
ism will produce nobler examples of heroism ; eloquence 
will make prouder conquests ; science will make more 
wonderful discoveries; the sublime and beautiful will 
excite loftier emotions; the sonorous strains of music 
will thrill with holier feelings ; and the forms of loveli- 
ness will far exceed the ideal beauty of the most gifted 
imagination. The superior endowments of the mind, 
its wonderful faculties, its aspirations for something 



104 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

purer and holier than it has yet felt, seem to indicate a 
loftier nature than is consistent with an earthly destiny. 

" The soul of man was made to walk the skies ; 
Delightful outlet of her prison here ! 
There, disencumbered of her chains, the ties 
Of toys terrestrial, she can rove at large ; 
There freely can respire, dilate, extend, 
In full proportion, let loose all her powers, 
And, undeluded, grasp at something great.' ' 

The intellect of man was intended to be in subordi- 
nation to his moral nature — to perceive and prosecute 
those subjects which are allied to his happiness. In- 
tellectuality alone is not the substratum of man's felicity. 
The longings of his moral nature require its use as an 
agent to discover truths and multiply motives of obe- 
dience. The intellect is to him, what the microscope 
is to the naturalist, or what the telescope is to the 
astronomer. His intellect is the medium, through 
which he derives his knowledge of God, the power of 
his authority, the loveliness of his benevolence, the 
profundity of his wisdom, and the grandeur of his jus- 
tice. Without this knowledge of God there c^uld be 
no obedience to his laws, no reverence for his character, 
and no gratitude for his benefactions. The capacities 
of the mind to explore the magazine of science, to cal- 
culate eclipses, to number the stars, to predict physical 
phenomena, to bridge forbidden rivers, to tunnel lofty 
mountains, to clothe thoughts with electricity, to analyze 
chemical combinations, to take microscopic views of 
organic life, and astronomical observations of the 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 105 

heavens, are great; but these lofty subjects are not to 
be the only and superior employments of the mind. 
They fall short of the real objects of life. The reli- 
gious nature of man rises to a higher magnitude, and 
opens a wider and more glorious field for the applica- 
tion of our powers. The study of God is more elevating 
and ennobling. Angelic intelligences, with their vast 
powers, have made but little progress in their know- 
ledge of God. Eternity, itself, will be insufficient with 
the most arduous application to comprehend him. He 
swells upon our imagination in unapproachable grand- 
eur, till we stand fixed, like statues, in silent amaze- 
ment, at the vastness of his power. No telescope can 
reach his throne, nor perceive those intelligent and 
conscious satellites that revolve around him. It is in 
the contemplation of such a being, even through the 
darkened medium that surrounds him, that we begin 
to feel emotions of the moral sublime, and rise upward 
to the true dignity of men, in thought, in feeling, and 
in action. We look with a sort of religious horror on 
the man, who, either from affected wisdom, or depravity, 
fails to contemplate him as the supreme source of all 
that is great and good. The most gifted, unaccustomed 
to associate God with their every-day thoughts, have 
been forced, like Sir Humphrey Davy, to inscribe upon 
their journal, " We are miserable." To the skeptic, the 
future opens no pleasing prospect. The moral splendor 
of God is shrouded from his vision, and his existence 
is a vacuo, an emptiness, a blank. The interior of his 
mind is like a cave filled with dismal sounds and 
frightful images, and never can life be to him what 



106 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

God intends it to be, till he feels the immortality of the 
soul, controlling and sanctifying his emotions. 

It was Socrates and Plato, who before the dawn of 
Christianity, desired a revelation from heaven. They 
felt the divinity within, bat they could not demonstrate 
it. Were they living in the days of the Apostles, they 
would have embraced the faith of the despised Naza- 
rene, and said: "We have found it; we have found 
it." The Mosaic dispensation was too exclusive to find 
a response in the human bosom ; and Paganism was 
too dark and perplexing to comfort the bewildered 
mind. Human philosophy was prompt to discover the 
evils of sin ; but could suggest no remedy. Darkness 
brooded over the world for centuries, until Christ 
brought life and immortality to light. The mists and 
vapors of a long cherished superstition fell from the 
vision of the pagan devotee, and Christianity stands 
forth, confessed the climax of God's revelation to man. 
Any further light of the future would be injurious. It 
would supersede, to some extent, the exercise of faith, 
and so circumscribe the quantity, as well as the quality, 
of our Christian graces. Our race would be, not one 
of faith, but one of sight, and our religious exercises 
would be rather automatic than natural. 

The weight of the atmosphere, we sustain, if con- 
centrated on a given point of the body, would crush us 
to death. Its equal distribution neutralizes the weight, 
and we bear it with impunity. And so if the soul 
could feel the concentrated glory of immortality, its 
emotions would be so intense as to rupture the nervous 
system, and superinduce death. The human body has 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 107 

often fallen a victim to the ecstatic pleasure of the soul. 
God, in his wisdom, has tempered this excess, by veil- 
ing the felicities of heaven. Yet we see enough to 
strengthen our hopes, encourage us in our labors, and 
inflame our gratitude. For clearer exhibitions of the 
soul's destiny, w T e must wait till the union is dissolved, 
and the soul shall occupy another more glorious body, 
whose superior organization can bear a higher pressure 
with impunity. The rapture, which the pious some- 
times feel in their religious meditations, is not without 
injury. The pleasing smiles, that sometimes mantle the 
face of the dying Christian, are, no doubt, produced by 
those ravishing visions which the eye of faith grasped. 
They were the earnest of what is to be, the dawn, the 
twilight of a glorious immortality. 

Existence, to many of us, though pleasant, is not as 
happy as it is intended to be. The earthly paradise is 
to be succeeded by a heavenly one, in which there shall 
be purer skies, richer flowers, more gorgeous rainbows, 
holier aspirations, and more enduring loveliness. There 
devotion never grows cold, friendships never change, 
pestilence never sweeps, death never smites, war never 
desolates, passions never consume, malice never corrodes, 
falsehood never pollutes ; but peace, and joy, and love 
shall bloom eternal. The increasing vigor of the soul's 
faculties, under these influences, will wing it with a 
loftier progression. If man's destiny was less than 
this, then God, who raised man's expectation, who in- 
spired his hopes, who fledged his wings here, has dis- 
appointed him. But it w T ould be sacrilege in us to 
charge God with such conduct. Everywhere has he 



108 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

taught us, u The soul immortal as its sire shall never 
die." 

It is no part of God's plan, that man, after death, 
shall live again on earth. Nature teaches a resurrec- 
tion, a state of progression. A retrograde movement 
is subversive of nature's order. It defeats the designs 
of God, and the happiness of man. Onward is the 
voice of God, as oracled in nature. The seed, deposited 
in the earth, will not always remain a seed. The egg, 
incubated, will not always remain an egg. The cater- 
pillar, crawling on the earth, will not always remain a 
caterpillar. The seed will, perchance, become a beau- 
tiful flower; the egg a bird of song, with golden 
plumage, and the caterpillar a gorgeous butterfly, a 
flower of the air. Nature, in its appearance, is con- 
stantly changing, undergoing dissolution, and a resur- 
rection ; and thus she becomes God's oracle to teach 
man a resurrection, that earth is not man's final abode, 
that his life was not given to sink into nothingness, 
and that those religious aspirations he feels, thronging 
the altar of his heart, are not to remain ungratified. 
We infer, from the teachings of nature, that from man's 
decayed body there shall arise another, not identically 
the same, not a corporeal body ; but a spiritual one, 
a glorified one, adapted to its new existence, furnished 
with wings, with unfading splendor, and with dainty 
taste; with senses so refined and powerful that they can 
see objects and hear sounds millions of miles afar. 

Besides, the experience of man is such that he is 
averse to the renewal of his existence on earth. His 
knowledge of improvement recoils at the idea of again 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 109 

being an infant, and passing through the ordeal of his 
juvenile trials and perplexities. He anticipates a higher 
condition. Progress is his nature, and he expects to be 
associated with a higher order of intelligences, and 
that, too, with increased facilities for enjoyment. The 
past, to him, if he be pious, is like a desert; the 
present is the vista through which the eye of his faith 
pierces, and beholds scenes of unearthly beauty. His 
impatience increases as he nears the border of the spirit- 
land, and hears the sweet melody of angels' harps. The 
man, homeward bound, who has passed through wild 
deserts, infested with ferocious beasts, with poisonous 
reptiles and robbers, from which he has miraculously 
escaped, has no disposition to repeat his journey, espe- 
cially, if he has approached so near his home as to see 
the smoke curling from his chimney-top, to hear the 
baying of his favorite dog, or to recognize the merry 
laugh of his playful children. To go back, to begin 
again that tedious and perilous journey, without seeing 
those loved ones for whom his soul longeth, would be 
agony supreme. So, when the body sickens and is about 
to die, the soul, hearing in the distance the sweet 
melody of angels' harps, and catching glimpses of those 
loved ones gone before, feels a transport which its 
approaching end heightens. To disappoint its expecta- 
tion, to turn its face earthward, after exciting its 
heavenly vision, forms no part of the economy of God. 
The soul has finished its mission on earth, has answered 
its purpose, and it joyously flutters away from the body, 
its dead companion, and rises majestically to the fields 
of Elysian bliss. 
10 



110 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

" Shall I be left abandoned in the dust 

When fate, relenting, lets the flower revive? 
Shall nature's voice, to man alone unjust, 

Bid him, though doomed to perish, hope to live? 
Is it for this vain virtue oft must strive, 

With disappointment, penury and pain ? 
No, Heaven's immortal spring shall yet arrive, 
And man's majestic beauty bloom again, 
Bright through the eternal year of love's triumphant reign." 

The future happiness of the soul is based upon the 
promises of God to man, upon the constitution of man, 
himself, which makes him dissatisfied with the present, 
and inspires him with the love of a higher existence. 
It is based, too, upon the necessity of the pious, who 
have consecrated their all to God in anticipation of it ; 
who have abandoned the pleasures and amusements of 
life ; who have struggled under every adverse circum- 
stance to maintain their Christian integrity ; and who 
have incurred the ridicule and persecution of others; 
and if there be no future state of felicity, then, of all 
men, are they the most miserable and deluded ; but 
that cannot be a delusion which is founded upon reason 
and revelation. Their anticipations are the reflex of 
the integrity of God. If there be any delusion, it is 
with those who deny the soul's immortality, and under 
w T hose teachings man's destiny is a mystery. It is 
affecting to contemplate the conduct of some of the 
most gifted men of the present age, men of science and 
general literature. Dr. Mason Good, of England, for 
many years was an infidel. If learning, if morality, 
if literary popularity could confer happiness on him, 
then he ought to have been extremely happy; But such 



THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. Ill 

was not the case. His mind was the seat of confusion, 
a moral chaos; and he never felt the heaven-born 
thrillings of a true man, till he renounced his cobweb 
theory, and saw himself in the reflected light of heaven, 
a child, not of chance, but of immortality. Noble 
thoughts inspire noble emotions, and consecrate the 
affections. A sense of responsibility creates anxiety to 
meet the ordeal of a just judgment. And, hence, man 
rises in the scale of morality, as his sense of responsi- 
bility increases. In proportion, therefore, as we feel 
the force of the souPs immortality, will our happiness 
advance. The fear of death will be extinguished, and 
the more arduous and persevering will be our efforts to 
rise in the estimation of God. When great interests 
are at stake ; when Heaven is to be won or lost by our 
own conduct, we cannot be indifferent spectators. We 
will brace ourselves for the conflict, and sink or swim, 
we will make every effort to work out our redemption 
with fear and with trembling. 

There is no intermediate state between death and 
the Judgment. " This day thou shalt be with me in 
paradise," is reversely true of the wicked, who shall 
on the day of their death be in punishment. The 
moral status of the soul here will decide its future con- 
dition. He that is holy shall be holy still, and he that 
is filthy shall be filthy still. There will be, literally, 
no quenchless fires, and no ceaseless gnawing worm, 
but a moral agony, consuming and intense; reproaches 
unmitigated ; a pungent sense of shame, and perpetual 
self-condemnation. Unavenged injuries here will be 
avenged there, and all the baser passions of the soul 



112 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

will be intensified, and war, and strife, and moral car- 
nage will rule in the ascendant. The pious shall live 
in peace. The fruits of the Spirit that began to blossom 
here, will ripen there, and holiness will be the perpetual 
heritage of the redeemed. 

The true object of life is not simply to toil for food 
and raiment ; nor yet to gratify the promptings of am- 
bition ; nor yet to indulge in ease and luxury; nor 
bask in the sunshine of pleasure ; nor riot in excesses; 
but the true object of life is to prepare for death. Pas- 
sions are to be subdued, avarice is to be suppressed, the 
Sabbath is to be kept holy, the heart is to be softened 
under the influences of prayer and humility, and the 
offices of benevolence are to be judiciously exercised. 
The purer and holier man is, the easier is his passage 
through the valley and shadow of death, and the more 
resplendent will be the crown of his glory. 

" When we gain the heavenly regions, 
When we touch the heavenly shore — 

Blessed thought !— no hostile legions 
Can alarm or trouble more ; 

Far beyond the reach of foes, 

We shall dwell in sweet repose. " 

" 0, that hope ! how bright, how glorious, 

"Tis his people's blest reward ; 
In the Saviour's strength, victorious, 

They at length behold their Lord. 
In his kingdom they shall rest, 
In his love be fully blest." 



DISCOURSE VI. 



LIFE'S BREVITY, AND ITS SORROWS. 

PREACHED WITH SOME ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS ON 

THE DEATH OF HON. GEO. W. DUNCAN, OF 

BARNWELL, SOUTH CAROLINA. 

" Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble." — 
Job xiv. 1. 

" And death is terrible -the tear, 
The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier, 
And all we know, or dream, or fear, 
Of agony are his." — Halleck. 

" O God ! it is a fearful thing 
To see the human soul take wing ! " — Byron. 

Death is the lot of man. To-day he blushes in 
health, sports in festive halls, reposes in luxurious 
ease, or else indulges in the noble duties of Christianity, 
and to-morrow he dies. The grave hails him as its 
guest; the worms embrace him as their brother, and 
corruption weds him as its spouse. The impartiality 
of death leaves no ground for jealousies, and his inex- 
orable demands admit of no excuses. His prodigious 
scythe sweeps over the world, and the young and old 
of both sexes and all nationalities fall helplessly before 
him. The sorrow that follows in his train is in pro- 

10* 113 



114 life's brevity, and its soreows. 

portion to our civil and moral elevation. In our 
homes the grief is intensified, because it operates in a 
narrower circle. There is less pageantry in the ex- 
pression of our sorrows, but more depth and sincerity. 
We pause in silent amazement as we gaze on the dead 
of our homes, and ask: "Can this be death ?" We 
gaze with tearful eyes on the dumb lip, the pallid 
cheek, the cold and stiffened form, and feel an un- 
earthly solemnity. We tremble at the narrowness of 
our escape, and our proximity to death alarms us. We 
feel deeply the vanity of life, and weep over hopes for- 
ever crushed in the dust. O, it would be more than 
felicity, if we could recall the fleeting breath, and give 
speech to those poor dumb lips, lustre to those leaden 
eyes, and warmth and beauty to that cold and stiffened 
form ! But alas! the fiat of Heaven has gone forth, 
and his fate is sealed. We may ease our sorrows in 
tears, but there can be no reunion on earth. 

"Can storied urn or animated bust 

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? 
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust, 

Or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death ? " 

A funeral occasion is not without its lesson. There 
are few so constituted as to gaze upon the dead with- 
out feeling emotions of grief. They see in that death 
hopes blighted, and their sorrow is in proportion to 
the strength of their friendship. Those, whose bosoms 
glow with feelings of kindness and tenderness, whose 
office of affection has been reciprocal, cannot bear the 
separation without agony. The fountain of their peace 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 115 

will seem ruptured, their minds will wear a gloomy 
aspect, existence will seem a void, and the whole ma- 
chinery of domestic and social life will seem shattered, 
and the mind, for the time being, will be agitated by a 
confusion of purpose. The solemn and painful thought, 
too, may obtrude itself upon the mind, that the sepa- 
ration may be final. Under the'light of reason the dis- 
tressed mind can find no motive to soothe its anguish. 
The darkness of the grave, the uncertainty of the fu- 
ture keep the mind in a state of painful suspense, a 
sort of vacuo, a moral chaos, in which there is not a 
ray of light to enliven the darkness within. Our grief 
finds no antidote in the teachings of philosophy. It 
is in the hour of bereavement that the religion of 
Christ shows its supremacy. It brings a soothing 
balm to ease the disquietude of the mind. It comes to 
us in the hour of distress like an angel of mercy, and 
wipes the tears from the brow of suffering humanity, 
strengthens, when human agency is powerless, and in- 
spires with courage, when human fortitude cowers and 
sinks prostrate in the dust. To mourn immoderately 
over the dead who die in the Lord is considered an 
improper expenditure of grief. The transition from 
life temporal to life eternal is one of infinite gain, and 
only selfish feelings would wish us to recall them 
to pass again through the ordeal of a protracted suffer- 
ing. There is a peculiar tenderness in God. He never 
afflicts merely to agonize us; but to superinduce a 
state of holier feeling. He, alone of all others, knows 
the force of the temptations that surround us, and he 
appreciates every holy aspiration after a more elevated 



116 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

piety. The failure to accomplish a holy purpose, 
either through weakness or fear, is not exactingly pun- 
ished by him; nor can the true penitent find a period 
too late to implore the exercise of his forgiving mercy. 
The benevolence of God is commensurate to his ability. 

An impenetrable darkness shrouds the operations of 
death, and the profoundest silence pervades his empire. 
From other kingdoms intelligence may be had, either 
by letter or telegraphic dispatches, but here the voya- 
gers can make no communications to their friends as to 
their destiny. We see the remains of their bodies, but 
Ave know not where the soul has winged its flight, into 
what regions it has gone, and with whom it associates. 
A silence painfully perplexing clothes their history. 
No tramp of busy footsteps is heard in this city of 
death ; no merry laugh apprizes you of a jocund throng ; 
no rosy, blushing face cheers you with its beaming 
smiles; no voice of man, nor beast, nor warbling bird, 
breaks upon the dismal silence. All is stillness, deep, 
mysterious, profound, as if the whole pulse of Nature 
had ceased to beat. As no one there feels the power 
of life and consciousness, so, consequently, no one re- 
turns from that country of bones and skulls to commu- 
nicate intelligence. This awful silence gives to death 
a mysterious power, that makes us involuntarily 
shudder, as we approach the border of his kingdom. 

The display of his ordinary power alarms us, and 
we shrink back, cold and lifeless, at his icy touch ; 
but there are times when that invisible and uncom- 
promising power of his is put forth in all its terrible- 
ness, and then, like the unbridled tempest, he sweeps 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 117 

the earth like an angel of wrath. The nations of the 
earth tremble and shake like aspen leaves, and look 
aghast, as if petrified with amazement. Napoleon, 
though accustomed to scenes of desolation, vet in the 
burning of Moscow stood trembling and appalled at 
the demon of havoc, that blended in one promiscuous 
carnage the victor and the vanquished. And more 
recently, the people of Chicago and Boston, in their 
burning cities, ran frantic from street to street, like de- 
moniacs, at the wrathful flames that consigned them 
and their loved ones to a fiery grave. TTar, too, often 
clothing itself with the terrors of conflagration, riots 
in human existence. The battle-field is covered with 
the dying and the dead, and the passions of the com- 
batants, intensified by national hatred and jealousies, 
exercise to the fallen the most shameless cruelty. Or- 
dinarily, in the time of peace, the old and the infirm 
die first; but in war, where death holds his carnival, 
the youth of promise and the man of science and vigo- 
rous existence, fall victims at its altar. The props and 
support of society are sacrificed, and a nation, exhausted 
in materials and broken in spirit, from weakness, 
totters in its existence, or perishes with nothing but its 
former memories to console its misfortune. More 
noiselessly, though not less fatal, death wings himself 
with the pestilence, that walketh at noon, and desolates 
the earth. The wailings of widows and orphans are 
heard in our streets, and the numerous funeral proces- 
sions attest the wide-spread desolation of death. The 
fruits of industry are dissipated like the chaff; the 
works of science and the monuments of genius lie 



118 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

neglected in the dust, and the functions of social and 
civil life are suspended. Earth seems one vast ceme- 
tery, and the living, like the condemned criminal, dare 
not hope, but tremblingly await their turn to be immo- 
lated on the altar of inexorable death. 

To conquer a foe, we must be brought in full contact 
with him ; but unfortunately for us, death has no 
visible existence, no tangible form, and, consequently, 
the ancient artists regarded him as a nonentity, and re- 
presented him in the form of a sleeping statue. It was 
never the custom of the ancients to offer sacrifices to 
death, because he could not be pacified. The super- 
stitious pagans dreaded him, and their imaginations 
were often harrowed with forebodings of evil. The 
mode of death's existence was too mysterious to be com- 
prehended, and his influence too subtle to be checked, 
and his power too insidious and crushing to be resisted. 
Hence, as a foe to man, he has nothing to dread from 
defeat, for no man can feel his power and' live. His 
insensibility precludes the possibility of a successful 
encounter. He is imbedded in our natures, and is 
silently sapping the foundation of our existence, so 
that without the accessories of accidents, he will in the 
end triumph over us. The cause, sin, that gave him 
this power, may be modified, but physical death, now, 
has become an inseparable part of our destiny. The 
invasion of death's empire by Christ has robbed him 
of his sting, and the grave of its victory ; but he will 
ever remain a terror to the wicked, an adjunct to reli- 
gion to awe men into obedience. 

Painful as the necessity of death is, yet he destroys 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 119 

nothing that is positively good. It is his mission to 
humble the proud and haughty, to purify society, to 
keep the elements of morality in a healthy and vigorous 
condition, to lop off the superfluities of animal exist- 
ence, and to elevate the spiritual over the temporal na- 
ture of man. Hence, he spares neither age nor sex, 
but rushes on with impartial strides, and lays prostrate 
in the dust, kings and nobles, in common with their 
subjects. Upon the tombs of these trophies nature may 
weep, but reason and religion will recognize a spiritual 
triumph, and applaud death for his concealed benevo- 
lence. They recognize in him the only true purifier of 
society, as the one, alone, who can crush out the conceit 
and vanity of man, and blast the purposes of evil. He 
is the electricity that purifies the moral atmosphere, 
and ventilates the flowers and fruits of a higher morality. 
He is the flood-gate that drains off the superfluities of 
animal existence, and makes the remaining portion 
purer and holier. Death, too, is the confederate of 
religion. He stops the vagrant thoughts, fixes the 
attention of men, leads to religious reflection, aids 
justice and morality, levels all distinction, teaches the 
vanity of life, connects the imagination with eternity, 
gives hope to the weary and despondent, and opens a 
passage to the felicities of heaven. To the pious, he 
has lost his appalling terror, for he is a friend in dis- 
guise ; to the wicked he is the precursor of wrath. 

Formidable as death is, he is more frequent now in 
his visits than formerly. Civilization has lent him 
power, and multiplied agencies to abet his hostility to 
our race, and he strides the world like a Colossus. 



120 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

There is no spot on earth where he has not made con- 
quests. The puny power of man wilts before him, 
and his ensigns float defiantly in every breeze. Other 
enemies, generally, approach us visibly. Their prox- 
imity is often heralded by music, or by the clashing of 
arms ; but death is silent in his approaches, and often 
deals the tidings in the blow. The progress of civili- 
zation, too, has multiplied the chances of sudden deaths. 
Populous cities, the fruits of civilization, become the 
centres of crime, and the elements of death keep pace 
with their growth and expansion. The passion for 
wealth builds up cities, and betrays itself by pandering 
to the capricious taste of the fickle multitude. Gor- 
geous and richly decorated saloons ; fashionable enter- 
tainments; lascivious music; commercial competition ; 
glittering vices, veiled under the garb of respectability; 
the amalgamation of different nationalities, with a 
blending of their peculiar vices; the rapidity with 
which epidemic diseases circulate, and the infection of 
the air, caused by the breathings of diseased lungs, 
present a most inviting field for the operations of death. 
Here he finds confederates ready to do his bidding. As 
commerce, too, advances, and spreads its broad white 
wings to the breeze, collisions at sea and shipwrecks 
are more frequent. Steam, the great revolutionizer of 
modern times, stands ready with its broad, burning, 
hissing lip, to consume us, so that, when we step on 
board of a steamship or car, there is no certainty that 
we shall reach our destination. In the midnight, in a 
profound sleep, the terrible cry that the ship is on fire, 
or is sinking, may thrill us with horror. To these may 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 121 

be added others less threatening in their external 
aspect, though not less fatal in their consequences. 
Sea-bathing, pleasure excursions, and racing are often 
attended with sudden deaths. These unexpected deaths 
cany sorrow to the homes of loved ones ; and often 
excite such violent emotions of grief as to superinduce 
death, or lead to that most painful of all calamities, 
Insanity. How true it is, that in the midst of life we 
are in death, and that man born of a woman is of few 
days and full of trouble. 

" Teach me the measure of my days, 

Thou Maker of my frame; 
I would survey life's narrow space, 

And learn how frail I am. 

" A span is all that we can boast — 

An inch or two of time ! 
Man is but vanity and dust 

In all his flower and prime." 

It is not in (he nature of man to be permanently 
happy here. The imperfection of his judgment, and 
the clashing interests of others often involve him in 
serious difficulties. His nature is such that he is im- 
patient of the present, and he rushes into engagements 
with little or no reflection. His efforts meet with no 
encouragement from public sympathy, and he sees his 
most arduous labors crushed in the dust. The friendly 
aid upon which he relies is often withheld, and in his 
eager pursuit of ambitious schemes, he incurs the 
hatred and animosity of others. Often, too, his de- 
parture from the rules of integrity, Nemesis-like, tor- 
11 



122 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

tures him. The future, to which he looks with hopes 
of better success, disappoints his expectations. If by 
chance he plumes his wings for intellectual distinction, 
he finds rivals equal, if not superior to himself. Self- 
love magnifies his pretensions, and preferences given 
to others inspire him with hatred. Or if he stands 
unrivalled in the field of science, yet like Newton, he 
feels that he has gathered up only a few pebbles, while 
the ocean of undiscovered truths lies in illimitable 
grandeur before him. His noblest conceptions often 
displease him, or they fail to secure their merited 
applause. The w r orld to him is like the storm-beaten 
sea, whose furious waves beat mercilessly against him, 
and wreck the felicities of his hopes. Disappointment 
and anxiety embarrass him, and destroy the serenity of 
his sleep. Domestic and social evils throng his foot- 
steps, and annoy him with their painful dissensions- 
The inhalation of poisonous elements is silently sap- 
ping the foundation of his existence, or is preparing 
him to transmit a diseased constitution to his posterity. 
Plans sagaciously and hopefully formed, are blighted 
before their maturity. Often, the most tender rela- 
tions are broken, and his children, by their misconduct, 
bring down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. 
Death, finally, comes and crowns the climax of these 
misfortunes. 

Aside from private sufferings, public ones beset us 
in our pilgrimage. Man is man's deadliest foe, when 
his anger is roused, and his wrath often comes as 
crushingly as it does suddenly. To hold our peace, 
our fortunes, and our lives, and those of our families 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 123 

at the will of another, who is neither wise nor humane, 
but a fanatic, is anything but happiness. The love of 
power, whether secular or religious, has not scrupled 
to practice the grossest injustice. The rights of indi- 
viduals have been trampled in the dust, and an ambi- 
tious priesthood has fettered the freedom of conscience 
by threats of confiscation and death. The better to 
succeed, they have sought to terrify the ignorant and 
superstitious with fictitious miracles. A contribution, 
too, has been laid upon death by representing him as 
a Gothic skeleton, whose fleshless frame awakened the 
most gloomy sensations. That the remembrance may 
not be easily effaced from their minds, these skeleton 
images were either carved or painted upon their 
bridges, their public buildings, their household utensils, 
their garments, their books and their finger-rings. 
The grave, which the ancients regarded as the abode 
of peace, was converted by them into a charnel-house. 
Purgatorial punishments were threatened to all who 
should repudiate the creed of the Mother Church. 
The Inquisition, with its terrific insignia, was paraded 
through the streets. It was an age of religious terror 
and despotism ; and the victims that fell to satiate this 
Moloch were numerous. Some hid in caves and dens, 
and others in the wilderness ; but this fanatical Neme- 
sis ferreted them out and gorged herself with their 
blood. Those were troublesome times, and the haunted 
and persecuted knew not the hour of their death. 

But the world, too, is afflicted with civil and poli- 
tical strife. We are often plunged in the vortex of 
war without even our consent. The multitude, exas- 



124 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

perated with either a real or fancied injury, will 
sometimes rush on to try the fortunes of war, and iu- 
volve a whole nation in bloodshed. Some of the most 
terrible wars of Europe have had their origin under 
the most trifling provocation. The terrible war 
through which we recently passed is too painfully dis- 
astrous not to excite our sympathies, and force us to 
deplore its consequences. Society, with scarcely a 
speck to mar its beauty, passed through a convulsive 
upheaval, and the dross crystallized itself upon its sur- 
face. The State groans under an exacting and oppres- 
sive taxation, and a rude unlettered rabble deliberate 
upon our destiny. The Executive, through mistaken 
clemency, pardons the assassin and the robber, to roam 
at large like demons, to blight and desolate. The 
Sacred Temple of Justice is desecrated, and from the 
Shekinah of its sanctum sanctorum comes the wailings 
of injured virtue. The cup of gall put to our lips 
might have been less bitter, the franchise, less uni- 
versal, the taxation, less oppressive, and the bayonets, 
less bristling ; but as the evils have come upon us 
overwhelmingly and crushingly we will bear them 
with Christian fortitude, and add our testimony to the 
millions gone before, that " man born of a woman is 
of few days and full of trouble." 

Not all the evils of life, however, are to be con- 
sidered unavoidable. Many of these evils are the con- 
sequences of our choice and imprudence. They owe 
their origin to the excesses of evil passions; to an un- 
bridled licentiousness ; to the infraction of civil and 
moral laws ; to the habits of intemperance ; to the in- 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 125 

diligence of idleness; ti the projects of ambition; to 
the insatiable thirst of wealth ; to pride ; to hatred 
and jealousies. Natural and providential evils are to 
be distinguished from moral ones. Sickness and death 
are unavoidable from the constitution of our natures. 
They form a part of our existence, and though the 
pains inflicted are sometimes poignant, yet they are 
limited in their duration. The world requires a suc- 
cessive population. The decayed energies of the old 
must be succeeded by the renewed energies of the 
young. The human race is perpetually renewing itself 
to develop the resources of nature, and keep the social 
and civil elements in healthy circulation. The dead 
of the present generation will be resurrected in the 
next, not in identity, but in humanity. The earth 
could not support an undying population with its pre- 
sent mode of existence. Hence, disease and death are 
necessities. Any interference on the part of God with 
the actions of men would destroy their free agency, 
would neutralize the motives to a virtuous life, and 
Ijad to the indulgence of crime; for virtue would lose 
its reward, and guilt its merited punishment. The ac- 
tive interposition of the Deity would be required to 
checkmate the designs of the vicious. The moral gov- 
ernment of God would not be one of choice, but, one 
of necessity ; and perpetual miracles would be required 
to guide its destiny to a felicitous conclusion. Man's 
responsibility w T ould cease. He would be an auto- 
maton, moved only as God moves him. Such a state 
of things would conflict with the wisdom of God, and 
the felicity of man. The man of virtuous habits, who 



11 



* 



126 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

shapes his conduct according to the established laws of 
God ; who seeks not to be greater than nature has 
made him ; who lives, not so much for himself as for 
others ; who has right conceptions of the character of 
God, and will do that only which is right and proper, 
cannot fail to be a happy man. The evils of life, such 
as they are, will pale in comparison with the felicities 
of heaven. Death, though seemingly an enemy, will 
crown him with a glorious immortality. 

" Death is the crown of life : 
Were death denied, poor man would live in vain. 
Death wounds to cure ; we fall, w r e rise, we reign ; 
Spring from our fetters, fasten to the skies 
Where blooming Eden withers from our sight — 
This king of terrors is the prince of peace." 

Remedies have been sought for most of the evils of 
life, but in vain. Philosophy has not softened them, 
nor civilization lessened them. The adventurous spec- 
ulator has multiplied the chances of misery and death, 
by incessantly goading the mind with new schemes of 
interest. There are exceptions, for the world is beau- 
tiful and lovely, and designed for happiness. Many 
roll in ease, and some make a rational use of their 
wealth, and rise above the mass in quietude of mind. 
As you descend from these, the scale of human felicity 
grows less, till you get down to the very whirlpool, the 
sink of crime, where misery sits enthroned with her 
revolting features. The world is maddened with sin, 
and if disease and death did not moderate this moral 
frenzy, the earth would become a Golgotha. But death 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 127 

interposes his power, blights the incorrigible and modi- 
fies the miseries of mankind. The ungodliness of man 
in its maturity is not transmitted to the young. Crime 
has its beginning, its maturity, and its end. There is 
no unbroken, progressive succession in crime, no moral 
hereditary affection. The mantle of iniquity does not 
fall upon the young in its full proportions. The youth 
must learn, must take his first lesson in the school of 
iniquity ; his chances of success and defeat : he must 
taste the bitterness of the accusings of a tender con- 
science, before he arrives to the condition of manhood 
in crime. Meantime, death is busy, checking the in- 
road of vice by lopping off the more pernicious 
branches of the tree of humanity, and thus adding vigor 
to the more healthy portions of society. I have no 
fears while death is abroad in seeing the world over- 
corrupt. The growth of that very corruption carries 
with it the seeds of death, the elements of its own de- 
struction. The evil works its own ruin by a process 
as certain as the laws of gravitation. 

Whether we are sensible of it or not, we stand on 
the brink of the grave. The utmost extension of 
human life is but a span, and the most long-lived find 
their lives a dream. The work to be accomplished in 
that short time is great and important. We are some- 
times surprised at the supineness of men. Some are 
immersed in luxury and ease, and others are enthusi- 
astically engaged in the accumulation of wealth. Some 
are tasking to the utmost their energies to climb the 
rugged steep of fame, while yet a greater number are 
bowing before the shrine of pleasure. The thought of 



128 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

death seldom, if ever, enters their minds. The re- 
monstrances of conscience may sometimes occasion a 
momentary pain, but these are easily soothed by pro- 
mises of reformation. The convenient time to prepare 
for death has not yet come; failures of amendment are 
apologized for; new promises are made, which are 
destined to be as readily broken. Time rolls on ; the 
habit of sin becomes stronger, resolution becomes 
weaker, the reproaches of conscience become less dis- 
tressing; and man, morally broken, delusively indulges 
the hope, that he can conquer those passions in his 
weakness, which he has failed to accomplish in his 
strength. We cannot too frequently present to such 
persons the subject of death, nor too ardently insist 
upon their immediate preparation for eternity. 

The repetition of death does not seem to awaken any 
new images. Familiarity with such scenes lessens the 
emotions of dread, and the blandishments of hope lure 
us into the belief that as w r e have escaped once, we 
may escape again ; that what has happened to others 
may not, at least, immediately happen to us. The un- 
certainty, too, of the time of our death has increased 
our indifference, when it ought rather to be a subject 
of anxiety, as its uncertainty exposes us to imminent 
perils. The benevolence of God influenced him to 
conceal from us the hour of our death ; not that we 
should protract our preparation for it, but that this 
very uncertainty should be a motive to prepare at once, 
as we know not the hour when the Son of Man cometh. 
A knowledge of the time of our death, too, would pro- 
duce anx'ety of mind without averting the catastrophe. 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 129 

The duties of life would be imperfectly performed, 
and the whole existence of man would be a protracted 
death-bed scene. Life would be a sort of chaos, a dis- 
mal pilgrimage, whose way-side would be thronged 
with spectres and frightful images. Besides, if under 
the circumstances, we repent at all, that repentance may 
be the result of fear, and not of love. It may be dark- 
ened with the suspicion that it is not genuine. Ser- 
vice rendered to God under the full exercise of a rea- 
sonable faith will be more acceptable ; the love will be 
purer and the motive higher. For this reason, no 
doubt, God has concealed from us, in part, the hour of 
our death. There is no certainty either, if we knew 
the hour of our death that we would repent. The 
distance may be remote ; a thousand casualties may 
occur to render it exceedingly difficult. We may defer 
it, till the last moment ; till the body is so racked with 
pain, and the mind so disordered as to render repen- 
tance impossible. It is a dangerous experiment to rob 
God of our service under the expectation that a few 
moments of penitence on a dying bed will atone for a 
life of sin. It is both wisdom and benevolence on the 
part of God to conceal from us the time and circum- 
stances of our death. Our ignorance of it may lead us 
sooner to repentance, and crown our existence with 
nobler virtues. Our knowledge of it may lead us to 
postpone it forever and find a dishonorable grave. The 
more we contemplate the economy of God's govern- 
ment the more motives we see to admire his benignity 
and wisdom. 

Yery few of us, if any, really intend to die mise- 



130 

rably, or without preparation ; but it is painful to think 
how often we deceive ourselves. We imagine that 
death is afar off, and without any rational grounds for 
such a conclusion, we presume to act upon the suppo- 
sition, when death may be very near to us. There is 
no security to the robust and temperate, for they both 
die. We are loth to concede that we are mortal, nor 
do we impress ourselves with the reality that the shroud 
and coffin shall be ours. The weeping of Xerxes, near 
Thermopylae, at the thought that not one of the five 
millions of men composing his army would survive a 
hundred years, is worthy of our imitation. Such a 
thought may interpose a barrier to the seductive glare 
of pleasure, and lessen the fascinating splendor of 
wealth. A long life is but the heritage of a few, and 
yet so strong is the love of life, so reluctant are we to 
think of a speedy death, that we flatter ourselves, that 
we are the few who shall live to an advanced age. 
Hope encourages this delusion, and we defer prepara- 
tion for a future time ; and yet in that future time we 
shall have more errors to atone for, stronger habits of 
sin to overcome, less resolution and strength to struggle 
for the mastery of our passions, and less of heaven's 
favor to crown our repentance with success. The mere 
intention to prepare for death can afford no permanent 
pleasure. A conscientious mind cannot be happy in 
making promises which it is every day breaking. It 
must feel incessant agitation at the prospect of ap- 
proaching punishment. The mere hope of repenting 
in the future, even if successful, can afford no quietude 
to a mind conscious of trifling with God, and putting 



life's brevity, and its sorrows. 131 

in jeopardy its highest interest. The anticipation of 
reformation, no matter how agreeable, can never atone 
for the violation of sacred promises and the dereliction 
of acknowledged duties. And he, who thus trifles 
with his duties to God, and violates the sanctity of his 
conscience, will find the difficulties of a future repen- 
tance far more difficult than he now anticipates ; for 
every day lessens his ability to repent, and he may 
finally die in a state of impenitence, notwithstanding 
the sincerity of his good intentions. 

No one is in a fit condition to die well, who allows 
his mind to be harassed by divisions of religious sen- 
timents. Stability in religious faith is necessary to 
composure. A settled persuasion in the truths of 
Christianity will fortify the mind, protect it against the 
incursions of a false theology, appropriate to itself the 
promises of God, and raise it to a vigorous manhood in 
piety. The motions and operations of the soul are 
seriously embarrassed by suspense and uncertainty. 
The adoption of one creed to-day, and the aban- 
donment of it to-morrow for another, will not 
allow the seeds of truth to germinate and bear 
fruit ; nor will the mind be sufficiently calm and un- 
ruffled to attend to the practical duties of Christianity. 
A prolonged unstableness may lead to practical infidel- 
ity, and the dying moments of the sinner may be with- 
out the illumination of heaven to cheer his departure. 

The work of our redemption is so vast that we have 
not the time to lose in idle dalliance with pleasure. 
The art of dying well cannot be secured without a 
long experience in living well. The uncertainty of 



132 life's brevity, and its sorrows. 

our possessions, the fleeting nature of all earthly ad- 
vantages, and the precarious tenure by which the most 
splendid acquisitions are held, suggest an immediate 
preparation for death. God, too, demands of us more 
now than formerly, not only in point of piety but in 
usefulness. The advancement of science has multiplied 
our advantages tenfold, while the progress of religious 
truths has been unparalleled in the history of the 
church. The Sabbath generally has never been 
better observed ; religious literature has never been 
more generally diffused, and the ministry has never 
been more pious, talented, and scholastic; and public 
opinion has never been more favorable to the claims of 
Christianity. The necessity for immediate preparation 
is urgent. There is no intermission to the current of 
life. Our momentum may be accelerated or retarded, 
but we are, nevertheless, floating down the unseen 
current of time to the broad interminable ocean of 
eternity. There will be no reversion to our destiny; 
no repentance in the grave to which we are hastening. 
What great interests are at stake ! What felicities 
may be secured by a timely preparation ! What over- 
whelming anguish may be avoided by immediate re- 
pentance! Time is short; ask death -beds, and they 
will tell you. Prepare to meet thy God ! 

" Turn, sinner, turn ; thy danger know; 

Where'er thy foot can tread, 
The earth rings hollow from below, 

And warns thee of her dead." 



LECTURE L 



THE SEASONS WHY THE HEBREWS RE- 
MAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 

I shall, attempt in this lecture to show some of the 
reasons why the Hebrews do not accept the Messiah, 
although the prophecies are out of date. The subject 
is one that has long engaged my attention, and I hope 
the expression of my views may not be uninteresting 
to you, even though you may not be disposed to en- 
dorse all I say upon tbe subject. 

The present condition of the Hebrews is a fulfil- 
ment of prophecy : u They shall be scattered among all 
nations, and their homes shall be desolate." This was 
necessary as a part of the divine plan to keep alive the 
interest of Christianity, and to prove the Messiahship 
of Christ. There are very few of us, who accurately 
know anything of the present history of the Hebrews ; 
and 'indeed, they know very little of their own history ; 
for there was an interval of a thousand years after their 
dispersion, before any one of their own countrymen 
undertook to furnish such a history; and even then, 
this history was but sparingly circulated, owing to the 
unsettled state of their condition. As an evidence of 
the ignorance of their hi-tory, Floras, the polytheistic 
12 133 



134 THE REASON WHY THE HEBREWS 

writer, says : " They are an impious people ; " yet we 
know to the contrary. They are, generally, a re- 
ligious and conscientious people ; whose morality 
everywhere has given prominence to their nationality. 
Justin, Strabo, and Appian make use of similar expres- 
sions; and the eloquent Roman historian, Tactitus, 
thought they worshiped Bacchus. In the time of 
Demetrian, they were blended with the Christians as 
one with them, and suffered in common with them, 
during the terrors of his persecution. And the Em- 
peror, Numa, thought the religion of the Hebrews an 
impious thing; but allowed them free toleration. 
These facts show how supremely ignorant the most 
gifted writers of former times were of the character 
of a people, who could trace their religion back for 
ages to a Supreme God — a religion, which was given 
amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, and sus- 
tained by the most splendid miracles. 

That which strikes us as the most remarkable thing 
in their history is their singular preservation and dis- 
tinction. We trace their history, and we see them per- 
secuted, driven from place to place ; their property 
confiscated; their social and civil condition degraded 
by special laws. Like Noah's dove, they seem to have 
no soil on which to rest their weary feet ; to be, as it 
were, exiles in their own country, cast down, but not 
forsaken, persecuted, and still the chosen of God. 
Other nations, when subdued, generally, embrace the 
religion of their conquerors ; not so, however, with the 
Hebrews. They are repellent, like two electric clouds. 
They are like quicksilver, that will not amalgamate 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 135 

with foreign substances. And the Hebrews of to-day 
are the same as in the days of Moses and Elijah, 
David and Solomon. The love of their religion is as 
intense now as formerly ; their zeal has not abated ; 
nor do they feel any lassitude in their religious devo- 
tion. Nothing with them is obsolete in their religion, 
no matter how ancient. 

And this is the point we are to consider as underly- 
ing the whole of their religious structure, as an expla- 
nation of their singularity, their oneness. In their 
present condition, they do not act with that force, as 
when they were embodied in a nation under a ruler ; 
yet on account of the uniformity of their faith, they act 
efficiently, and their devotions retain all their ancient 
vitality. Their rites and ceremonies are still present 
to their imagination ; their laws are engraven upon 
their hearts as with a pen of diamond ; and because 
these laws are few, they are better understood, and 
more religiously and scrupulously observed. The 
severity of the punishment inflicted for offences in- 
spired reverence, and the infractions, consequently, are 
so few as not to imperil the safety of their constitution. 
Were they temporizing ? Did they think that the laws 
were not made for all times and for all plac-:s, Judaism 
would have been a thing of the past, and instead of 
explaining to you the causes which have kept the 
Hebrews a distinct people, I might, perhaps, have been 
making stump speeches to show the worthlessness and 
instability of all constitutions that may be broken at 
the option of a factious multitude. Very different, 
indeed, was it under the Jewish dispensation ; a single 



136 THE REASONS WHY THE HEBREWS 

word in that constitution, altered, was regarded by 
them as treason, and the guilty could find no expia- 
tion, but in death. 

The pious Hebrew held those laws in the utmost 
reverence. He never reads them, but he thinks of the 
terrors of Sinai — the lightning that flashed, and the 
thunders that pealed, and the dark portentous clouds 
that rolled up its base, from which he imagines he 
hears the voice of God. He bequeaths his feelings 
and his sentiments to his children, and they in turn, to 
theirs. Their laws were not disposed of, like the Ro- 
man Emperor's, who placed them so high that the 
people could not read them. From the child to the 
hoary-headed follower of Moses were the Hebrew laws 
understood. The mother taught them to her children, 
and so familiar were these laws to their minds that 
they needed no commentary, as in our laws. These 
laws became a bond, a pillar of their liberty, the pal- 
ladium of their nationality. 

They were observed by the king as well as by the 
people ; indeed the better to impress them upon the 
minds of their sovereigns, they were commanded to 
copy them. When you approach the Hebrews of to- 
day, and speak to them about their laws, they tell you 
with much complacency, that their laws have survived 
the crash of dynasties, and kingdoms, and thrones. 
They point you to the institutions of Numa, Solon, 
Lycurgus and Minos, which now exist but in name. 
They tell you that these laws were nothing more than 
religious fictions, or the inventions of political states- 
men, which were unsupported by the grandeur of 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 137 

miracles. The Hebrew in every breath inhales the 
spirit of the laws of Moses. These laws first shadowed 
forth the principle of a republic. They first taught 
self-government, and the art of preserving their nation- 
ality without a king, and without a country. We see 
in them the most remarkable evidence of the power of 
unity. The Rabbi, as he lingered among the ruins of 
ancient cities, gazing upon the broken columns, dilapi- 
dated edifices, crumbling arches, and moss -covered 
temples of nations once far advanced in civilization, 
little dreamed, perhaps, that his own stricken nation 
would survive the deluge of persecution through which 
it was destined to pass. But so it is ; the Hebrews to- 
day number as many as they did in the most glorious 
period of their freedom. 

The governments of the earth are various, and they 
are sustained either by fear, by patriotism, by honor, 
or by religion, The Republic is held by patriotism ; 
the Monarchy by honor ; the Despotic by fear ; and the 
Theocratic by religion. The latter is the most perma- 
nent. It is blended with the religious creed of man ; 
his hopes, and his fears ; and the more pious they are, 
the stronger becomes their government. A govern- 
ment founded upon the religion of man, recognizing 
all as religiously and civilly free ; holding God as 
supreme, and exacting absolute obedience to Him, 
must, from the very nature of the human mind, be a 
more popular and abiding government. And this will 
in some measure account for the continuance of the 
Jewish nationality. Moses, with that comprehensive- 
ness of mind so peculiar to him as a legislator, guarded 

12* 



138 THE REASON WHY THE HEBREWS 

against every contingency, that might lessen their reve- 
rence for his institution. The Eastern nations were 
cradled in Royalty. Kingdoms, Thrones and Em- 
pires were familiar to the imagination of the Hebrews; 
a love for regal splendor began to bud in their bosom, 
and a desire for a king ripened into a public expression 
of their feelings ; and Moses, to gratify this wish, 
allowed them to choose a king ; but that king was only 
nominal ; he had no will of his own : the laws of 
Moses became his Constitution, and he had to obey 
them in common with his people. There was no 
ambition on the one side to over-ride the people, nor 
sedition on the other to dethrone the king. And hence, 
in Jewish history, we seldom read of regicides, or 
assassinations of their rulers. The Hebrews recog- 
nized their national rulers as the agents of God, placed 
over them by a special Providence ; and they were accus- 
tomed to look through these agents up to God : conse- 
quently they felt themselves awed by the majesty of 
his power, who they knew would avenge with death 
the traitors of his laws. 

These feelings were general, and they made no effort 
to conceal them. They contemplated no aggrandizement 
under religious sanctions and ceremonies. These laws 
were lisped by the infant. The minstrel would chant 
them, and the milk-maid, as she hied her homeward way, 
would repeat them. Their conceptions of God were of 
the purest and loftiest character. And if, by chance, 
they gazed upon the sky, and beheld the millions of 
stars that flooded it, or if they gazed upon the mild 
and silvery face of the moon and felt the soothing 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 139 

powers of her reflected beams, or if they gazed upon 
the splendor of a summer's sunset sky, it was not to 
worship these. It was only as they recognized the 
glory of God in them, that their devotions flowed 
heavenward, and deepened and expanded, as they saw 
the power of God reflected in the works of his hands. 
Their religious feelings consecrated God, and they en- 
joyed the world only as they saw T it through him. 
Hence the pious and devout Hebrew holds in contempt 
every form of idolatry, and would rather die than 
clothe the Deity in palpable form. On no consideration 
would he give him a habitation in temple made with 
hands, or enshrine him in breathing marble, or repre- 
sent him upon the canvass. As he enters the portal 
of a cathedral, he feels a solemnity. The dim aisle^ 
the frescoed wall create a sort of architectural devotion. 
He thinks of his own loved Temple, where his fathers 
once worshiped ; of the Holy of Holies, whose retreat 
was such, that none but the high-priest could enter, 
and that but once a year, to intercede for Israel. He 
sees the Shekinah, the mystical presence of Jehovah, 
and the two Cherubim with extended w T ings, over- 
shadowing the mercy-seat. But in the very midst of 
these reflections, the green curtain rises, and he sees 
the Redeemer, the Saviour of mankind, the Christian 
Moses, painted in his passion. The unexpected appear- 
ance of this image, to say nothing of its religious im- 
propriety, appals him. He feels that the Christian has 
degraded the Messiah ; that instead of painting him on 
canvass, they ought to enshrine him in their affec- 
tions; that his laws should rule their conduct; that the 



140 TIIE REASON WHY THE HEBREWS 

dove, the symbol of his religion, should brood over the 
altar of their spiritual Temple. 

While these reflections are passing through his 
mind, the devout worshiper comes, and kneeling be- 
fore the image crosses himself, and prays to it. In a 
moment more a penitent, with downcast eyes, enters the 
confessional, and receives absolution for his sins from 
the lips of the priest. The Hebrew, with his concep- 
tion of God's spirituality, and the sacred grandeur of 
the Temple on Zion, with the Holy of Holies, where 
the presence of God was symbolized by the Shekinah, 
where the high-priest would bow upon his knees, and 
with weeping eyes importune for the forgiveness of 
Israel — turns pale at this presumption and mockery, 
and he rushes out of the cathedral, muttering to him- 
self, "My God ! is this thy Temple?" and not all the 
eloquence of the most gifted divine, not all the prophe- 
cies can persuade him, that such worship is purer than 
he sees in his own synagogue. Such, at least, was my 
impression, when in boyhood, I first entered a cathe- 
dral. Such appendages as picture worship and the 
Virgin Mary must circumscribe our conception of the 
spiritual character of Christ, while it fosters, justly or 
unjustly, the imputation of idolatry. "Thou shalt 
fall down and worship no graven image," is the law 
of God, and Christ said, " I came not to destroy the 
law, but to make it more honorable." 

But there is another cause which we must notice. 
The Hebrews never fail to teach their children that 
they alone are the true people of God. They narrate 
in their hearing the covenant which God made with 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE 141 

Abraham ; the successful contest of the shepherd-boy, 
David, with Goliath ; the drowning of Pharaoh and his 
host in the Red Sea; the successful journey of their 
fathers in the wilderness ; the pillar of cloud by day, 
and the pillar of fire by night; the appearance of God 
to Moses in the burning bush ; the laws given on Mt. 
Sinai; their victories over their enemies, in which a 
few put to flight thousands, and many other miraculous 
interferences in their behalf, in which care is taken to 
show that God is still near them in their wonderful 
preservation, as a people. The youthful mind drinks 
in these narratives; a deep impression is made, which 
grows with their growth. To foster these impressions, 
and to show their sincerity, their fathers keep and 
make them keep the Sabbath and the feast-days with 
the greatest scrupulousness. They so speak and deport 
themselves as to make their children observe their 
national anniversaries with enthusiasm, — such as the 
Passover, when the destroying angel passed over their 
houses, that showed the consecrated token ; the sprink- 
ling of blood ; the feast of Pentecost, which comme- 
morates their national recognition as the people of God ; 
the feast of Tabernacles, that commemorates their 
enjoyment of the promised land ; the festival of the 
New Year, in which they engage in religious exercises 
for the universal diffusion of God's knowledge, and 
wmich associates the covenant of God with Abraham 
on Mt. Sinai ; the feast of the atonement, in which they 
afflict their bodies for their sins ; their return to Jeru- 
salem after seventy years' bondage under the auspices 
of Cyrus ; the Purim, commemorative of the escape of 



142 THE REASONS WHY THE HEBREWS 

Mordecai from the murderous intention of Haman. It 
is needless to say that such festivities kept up from 
father to son, from generation to generation among the 
Hebrews all over the world, whether favored by civil 
enactments or persecuted, must, from the force of reli- 
gious training and habit, keep them a distinct and 
separate people. Added to the religious power and 
training of these festivities, is the universal opinion 
which no force of argument can weaken, or dispersion 
destroy, that they are still, as ever, the peculiar and 
the only acknowledged people of God. 

Another cause to which they may owe their pre- 
servation and distinctness, is the persecution, which as 
a people they experienced from time immemorial. 
Under every form of government they were proscribed; 
marks of indignity were heaped on them without 
measure. In some governments 'they were not allowed 
to hold real estate, and in London, in England, they 
were forced to occupy a particular part of the city or 
locality, and at one time the English government 
forced them to wear a particular colored hat. The 
Catholics in Spain and France were unrelenting in 
their persecutions. The soil of these countries was 
whitened with the bones of slaughtered Hebrews, and 
their rivers stained with their blood. England, who 
now favors them, was once their worst foe. In the 
dark ages, especially, in the period of the crusade, they 
knew no rest; but were robbed and plundered by re- 
ligious fanatics, among whom the most prominent was 
Peter, the Hermit. The tragical scene of York in 
England, in which a whole community of Hebrews, 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 143 

including the Priest, committed suicide rather than fall 
into the hands of the mob, attests their heroism and their 
devotion to the religion of their fathers. These perse- 
cutions so unprovoked, and so cruel, united the Hebrews 
in closer affecti on, cemented the tie of friendship among 
themselves, and created the impression that all Chris- 
tians were in alliance to destroy them. They made no 
distinction between professors and non-professors. They 
condemned all for the misguided enthusiasm of the 
few. They regarded all as their unrelenting enemies. 
And it is very difficult for you to separate these acts 
from the Christian religion. You must judge the He- 
brew by his religion, and not by your own, and con- 
sider how you would act, if placed under the same 
circumstances. These persecutions have had a tendency 
to repel the Hebrews from approaching Christianity. 
They were prejudiced against a religion, which 
trampled on the weak and unfortunate. You may tell 
them that these persecutions were not sanctioned by 
the spirit of Christianity, that they were the result of 
a barbarous age ; but still they feel that they are dark 
and repulsive spots in our history, and the recollection 
of them serves, only to chill their feelings and check 
any rising desire to investigate the claims of Chris- 
tianity. The same objections, however, cannot be 
urged by the Hebrews in the United States. Here, 
they are free and respected, and no laws, civil or eccle- 
siastical, restrain them in their freedom to worship God 
according to their pleasure. 

Another cause, which has contributed much to their 
preservation and distinction, is their ignorance of the 



144 THE REASON WHY THE HEBREWS 

prophecies. In many of their houses, they have no 
Bibles at all, unless some visitor, as was the case in our 
house, should secretly leave one, and which providen- 
tially served like a star to guide me into the truth. 
Their priests have always made it a point to evade the 
prophecies, and to attach a meaning to passages of 
Scripture entirely at variance with the laws of inter- 
pretation. We will mention one instance. The pro- 
phecy in Isaiah, which says that Christ shall be a man 
of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that he shall die 
for the sins of the people, &c. This passage is so 
forcible, so clear, and so conclusive, that the Jewish 
Rabbis, in order to evade it, said there would be two 
Messiahs, one a man of sorrow, and the other of great 
renown. It is exceedingly difficult to force them to an 
honest and candid discussion of this subject. Whether 
the Rabbis are honest or not in their opposition to the 
Messiah, I cannot say ; but I am persuaded of one 
thing, that the Hebrew people, generally, are as igno- 
rant of the prophecies now, as in the olden time, when 
the priesthood became so corrupt that it was put up to 
public auction, and sold to the highest bidder. 

As another evidence of the ignorance of the Hebrews, 
in regard to the prophecies, I will mention the case of 
Napoleon. Many of the Hebrews firmly believed that 
he was the Messiah. They were dazzled by the 
splendor of his achievements. Their expectations and 
their hopes were worked up to the highest point of 
excitement, and every victory of Napoleon served only 
to increase their enthusiasm ; and the wily Emperor 
took advantage of their feelings, and appointed a 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 145 

council to deliberate upon measures for their political 
elevation. The victory of his Marshall, Kleber, at 
Mt. Tabor, with only three thousand against twenty- 
five thousand Turks, electrified their bosoms, and from 
lip to lip it was shouted, "Napoleon is our Messiah." 
Many of them confidently expected that he would re- 
instate them in Jerusalem, with all their ancient glory 
and nationality, as Cyrus had done in their previous 
history. But the sequel proves that they were poor 
interpreters of the plans of God. There was a positive 
prophecy that such a person as Cyrus would arise and 
rebuild their temple, and reinstate them in their civil 
rights ; but there is no such prophecy in relation to 
Napoleon and themselves. At any rate, they ought to 
have known that Napoleon could not be the Messiah 
promised to them; for that Messiah was to be born in 
the town of Bethlehem, and Napoleon was born on the 
Island of Corsica. The Messiah was to be of the He- 
brew nation, and of the tribe of Judah; Napoleon be- 
longed to the French nation, and of the Gentiles. The 
Messiah was to come while the second Temple was yet 
standing; that temple was destroyed seventeen hundred 
years before the birth of Napoleon. The Messiah was 
to make his appearance at the time the civil power de- 
parted from the hands of the Hebrews. Napoleon 
made his appearance about eighteen hundred years 
after, and the same remark will apply to the many 
pretenders who succeeded the Messiah. The terrible 
sufferings through which the Hebrews passed in adhe- 
ring to these false Messiahs, have seriously modified 
their desire to follow every pretender. They have be- 
13 



146 THE REASON WHY THE HEBREWS 

come incredulous. They have settled down into a con- 
dition in which they stand poised between hope and 
despair. I conversed with an intelligent Hebrew, the 
pastor of a city church, on the subject of the Messiah. 
I asked hirn the following question : " Do you expect, 
sir, the Messiah to come ? The prophecies are out of 
date/' He was silent, when I added : " He could not 
prove himself to be the Messiah, if he were to come.'' 
" O," said he, u the Messiah is to come morally." And, I 
am sorry to say, that such is the method which some 
employ to evade the prophecies, and not until there is 
more candor among them, can you expect a reformation 
in their religious views. The charge, " My people do 
not consider," is as strong to-day against them, as in 
the days of the prophets. 

It seems to be the purpose of God that the Hebrews 
shall remain a distinct people for the present, to be a 
witness for the divinity of Christ, to act as a Hank 
movement against the advances of infidelity, for their 
distinctness and separation, as a people, in view of the 
prophecies, form a monumental evidence in support of 
the truth of Christianity. They do not mean by their 
conduct to aid and sustain the claims of the Messiah; 
but they have, and are still doing so, as though their 
distinctness was intended for this purpose. God often 
blinds our counsels, and makes us ignorantly act in 
conformity to his plans. He makes the wrath of man 
to praise him. The Apostles, in connection with Christ, 
are the foundation of the Christian Church. Tt was 
laid in Jewish blood ; the Gentile world is to form the 
body of this church, and the present Hebrews are to 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 147 

compose its steeple. The body of this Christian Temple 
— this spiritual structure is not yet completed, but is 
culminating to its final consummation, and when the 
Great Architect, the Holy Redeemer, shall pronounce 
its body completed, then will the Hebrews be brought 
in with the fulness of the Gentiles, to form the steeple 
of this noble edifice. Their conversion will take place 
rapidly, and they will hasten from the four quarters of 
the globe, and bring forth the royal diadem, and crown 
the Messiah Lord of all. When they are thus con- 
verted to Christianity, and the Spiritual Temple is 
completed in all its departments, then will the Saviour 
make his second appearance, and the Hebrews, con- 
gregated into one body as Christians, will migrate to 
Jerusalem, and Christ will reign in person. The pro- 
phecy relating to his second coming is yet to be ful- 
filled. He is to come in the same manner in which he 
left. He ascended from Mt. Olivet in a cloud, and he 
will come again in a cloud. Nations are to be gathered 
against Jerusalem ; but the Lord shall go forth and 
battle with them ; so Zechariah says, and his feet shall 
stand on Mt. Olivet. When this takes place the earth 
is not to be annihilated, as is supposed, but only purified 
from sin, made holy. The wilderness shall blossom 
as the rose ; the righteous shall then flourish, and peace 
shall be in the land ; the lamb and the lion shall lie 
down together, and Christ shall have dominion from 
sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. 
When this second advent is to take place we do not 
know ; but it will not be long deferred after the con- 
version of the Gentile world. Science will then prove 



148 THE REASON WHY THE HEBREWS 

herself to be the hand-maid of religion. The progress 
which she is now making, and which is made use of 
for commercial purposes, will be employed to consum- 
mate the prophecies. The earth will be filled with the 
glory of God, and sanctified minds will consecrate 
science to advance the end of religion. The electric 
spark will flash along the telegraphic wires through 
the civilized world, and every part of the globe will 
resound with the second advent of Christ. And the 
Hebrews, in a few moments scattered to the winds of 
heaven, shall hear with ecstacy the tidings of the second 
coming of Christ. They will be made willing in the 
day of God's power, to hail him as their Prince ; and 
the prophecies relating to their return to Jerusalem 
will then be fulfilled. Steamboats, constructed with no 
reference to this grand design, but from commercial 
purposes, will throng our rivers and harbors, of twice 
the dimension and twice the speed ; and the scattered 
and long-neglected Hebrews will, in a week or two, 
find themselves in their time-consecrated city, Jerusa- 
lem, looking upon Him whom their fathers once pierced ; 
but now exalted to be a Prince. Palestine shall once 
more be theirs ; the long-neglected Palestine, the cradle 
of their religion and nationality, shall bloom again, 
shall resume its former loveliness. Christ shall sit 
upon the throne of David, and the Hebrews, converted 
to the Christian faith, will say, " Not unto us, but unto 
thy name be all the glory." 

Truth is stranger than fiction ; and let us not stand 
to question this glorious change in the future condition 
of Israel, when we have seen as startling events in the 



REMAIN A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 149 

his'ory of our times. Had I predicted that the African 
population of South Carolina would rule this State; 
that they would fill the places in our legislative halls 
once occupied by some of our most distinguished citi- 
zens ; that they, in fact, would be our political masters, 
you would have said : u The thing is impossible, and I 
must be a madman for saying so ;" yet it has come to 
pass, and there was no prophecy to this effect ; but there 
is a prophecy that the Hebrews shall return to Jerusa- 
lem at the second coming of Christ, and Mt. Olivet 
shall be the centre of his throne. 

And the Providence of God, too, seems to provide 
for such a state of things, by keeping the Hebrews 
stationary in their population. Palestine will be as 
formerly. Her rich soil, with the improved modes of 
agriculture, will yield abundance. The two continents 
will seem like one ; communication will be so frequent 
that the personal presence of Christ will seem universal. 
Transportation will be so cheap that visits to Jerusalem 
will be like excursions. Popes and Cardinals will be 
things of the past, and Christ will be the true Pope, 
infallible, immortal. Men will be purer and holier than 
they now are. They will be sanctified from their births, 
like Samuel, Jeremiah, and John the Baptist. Satan 
shall be bound, hand and foot, and the earth shall be 
filled with the glory of God. Then we shall see eye 
to eye. Persecution will be a thing of the past, and 
the Hebrew will see that the religion of Christ, which 
was symbolized by a dove, is what it purports to be ; 
" Peace on earth and good -will to men." There will 
be no smoking altars; no Holy of Holies ; no especial 

13* 



150 THE HEBREWS A DISTINCT PEOPLE. 

place for the high-priest to officiate ; but every spot on 
earth will be consecrated by the prayers of a devout 
people, and Christ will rule King of nations, as he is 
now King of saints. 

" Lord, for those days we wait ; those days 
Are in thy word foretold ; 
Fly swifter, sun and stars, and bring 
This promised age of gold. 

'■ Then, Judah, thou no more shalt mourn 
Beneath the heathen's chain ; 
Thy days of splendor shall return, 
And all be new again.'' 



LECTURE II. 



WHITEFIELD, DK. THOMAS CHALMEKS AND 
KOBERT HALL 

AS IPTJLIRIT OH-A/TOHS. 



It is conceded by all who reflect, that the power of 
the pulpit is not as great now as formerly. The ser- 
mons, generally, are too artistic, and too little regard 
is paid to oratory. Some have thought that our ad- 
vancement in civilization does not require those appeals 
to the passions, which in a less cultivated age were 
practicable. As for myself, I think there is just as 
great necessity for pulpit oratory now, as formerly ; for 
we find that he who excels in this oratory, attracts more 
attention, and is more successful. It forms no part of 
my business to inquire into the degeneracy of the pulpit, 
though I think this is owing much to the training of 
our young ministers. To be taught the art of pulpit 
oratory, one must be placed under an orator for instruc- 
tion, in connection with his Theological studies. The 
power of the pulpit has gradually diminished, and 
effective preachers, such as flourished some fifty years 
ago, are now seldom to be found. 

The reformation inaugurated by Luther, awoke to 
life the lethargy of the pulpit, and many an able 
advocate battled zealously for the restoration of primi- 

151 



152 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

tive Christianity. In Germany, we are struck with 
the power of Luther, with the pathos of Tholuck, with 
the elegance of Thermain, and with the tenderness of 
Krummacher. In England, we admire the exuberant 
fancy of Jeremy Taylor ; the searching and trenchant 
power of Baxter; the melodious strains of Flavel; the 
ingenious and sermonizing powers of South ; the erudite 
and eloquent discourses of Barrow ; the diamond-like 
clearness and force of Wesley ; the grandeur and ele- 
gance of Robert Hall. In Scotland, we are introduced 
to the rugged and effective eloquence of John Knox ; 
the zeal of Erskine ; the graceful beauty of Logan ; 
the force of Thomson, and the magnificent eloquence 
of Chalmers. In France, we are raptured with the 
genius and lofty inspiration of Bossuet ; the eloquent 
and generous Flechier ; the pure and lofty discourses 
of Bourdaloue; the elastic, elegant, and powerful style 
of Massillon. In Switzerland, we have the sterling 
eloquence of Monod; the graceful and animated diction 
of Merle D'Aubigne ; the beauty and picturesqueness 
of Gaussen. In the United States, we record the names 
of Jonathan Edwards, Emmons, Payson, Channing, 
Mason, Way land, Hopkins, Spring and Durbin. These 
ministers are models — they have left a record for elo- 
quence and ability which we will do well to emulate. 

George Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England, 
on the 16th of December, 1714. His father died when 
he was very young, and his mother raised him with 
devotional tenderness. At an early age he gave un- 
mistakable signs of capacity, and excelled in the art of 
declamation. The progress which he made in his 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 153 

studies was highly satisfactory ; but the pressure of 
circumstances forced him to suspend them for a time, 
which afterwards he resumed with little interruption. 
In his seventeenth year, he became a member of the 
Church of England, and in his twenty-second year was 
ordained to the ministry. So effective were his pulpit 
efforts, that many thousands are said to have been con- 
verted. After a career of much popularity, he espoused 
Methodism, and became a laborious co-worker with 
Wesley. This friendship was interrupted by the ad- 
herence of Whitefield to Calvinism, and these two 
great luminaries moved in different orbits. 

Open field preaching may be dated from the time 
Whitefield and Wesley espoused Methodism. This 
period dates a new era in the history of the pulpit. 
Moorfield, Kennington, and Black heath were the 
principal fields, on which these stars in the ministry 
displayed their powers. Thousands crowded these 
fields, and few left them without being deeply affected. 
It is a pleasing task to contemplate the character of 
Mr. Whitefield. It seems as if God raised him up, 
just for that purpose, to inspire the pulpit with life and 
vigor, and to teach that Christianity is not a form, but 
a power. As a minister, he owed his success more to 
his simple, earnest, and impassioned manner, than to 
any special art of the orator. He possessed a large 
share of common sense, was well read in literature, and 
well acquainted with the human heart. His eloquence 
was not lofty, nor nervous and inspiring, like Massillon ; 
but it was pungent and direct, rolling on like a power- 
ful wave, that would dash and break, and unite and 



154 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

dash and break, till it had conquered its foe. At times 
his eye would flash and his voice would roll like distant 
thunder. 

The natural structure of his mind was not logical 
nor sublime. He could not aspire to the eminence of 
Jeremy Taylor for elegance and fancy, nor to any of 
the more distinguished orators of France. His style 
was more diffusive than compact, and more impressive 
than argumentative. He possessed a peculiar faculty 
of impressing incidents into his sermons to illustrate a 
truth, and enforce the morality of the Bible. He had 
a ready faculty of adapting himself to circumstances. 
He could be sublime at times, but that was not his 
forte. He understood the art of flanking the sinner; 
of trailing him to his lurking places ; of besieging him ; 
of storming his intrenchments, and hurling him from 
the pedestal of his self-righteousness. He possessed 
the peculiar art of saying the right thing at the right 
time, ard in the right place. He was quick to perceive 
where advantage might be taken to impress a truth or 
introduce an illustration. He was not so burdened with 
thoughts, so full of them, that he could not take up 
with inc'dental ones. He laid a contribution upon 
every thing to give power and efficiency to his ministry. 
There are some minds that are great only on great 
occasions. They require some lofty theme to stimulate 
their powers and inflame their passions. Such, however, 
was not the case with Mr. Whitefield ; from the most 
barren texts he could gather materials, which, thrown 
off in the form of sermons, would produce the most 
happy effects. His gestures were easy and natural ; a 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 155 

dignified grace pervaded every movement of the body, 
and his fine countenance glowed with an expression of 
frankness, that gave to his pulpit efforts the most happy 
results. 

It is said that no true eloquence can exist without 
moral virtues. Now and then w T e may see vicious men 
pouring forth a flood of eloquence that may startle us; 
but, for the time being, their bad qualities are darkened 
by the splendor of their efforts. True eloquence must 
have its foundation in real or affected virtue. To Mr. 
Whitefield belonged, in an eminent degree, the higher 
qualities of the Christian gentleman. He was tender 
in his nature, liberal and forbearing, and seemed rather 
to belong to all denominations, than to any particular 
one. He had a living, glowing piety ; a strong and 
vigorous faith. He could see further into the relation 
of repentance and peace than most men. He drank 
deeper of the fountain of inspiration, and could see 
dangers that were shrouded from the vision of others. 
Possessing a tender sensibility, he poured out his soul, 
like Jeremiah, in pathetic strains and affectionate 
entreat : es. He was very far from being a fanatic. He 
was calm, thoughtful, dignified ; thoroughly acquainted 
with the human heart ; knew its strong and w r eak 
points, and generally spoke with much enthusiasm. He 
had a voice of great depth and compass, with every 
variety of modulation. He could elevate it and make 
it pour forth in strains, like the deep swell of the organ, 
or he could breathe it forth in the sweet, soft, mellow 
strains of the iEolian harp. When elevated in his 
feelings, when his faith winged its upper flight, and the 



156 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

terribleness of eternity beamed upon his vision, he in- 
dulged in strains of eloquence that would startle his 
audience ; his very countenance seemed to glow with 
angelic light. Few, very few, could listen to him at 
such times without being deeply affected. 

His manner in the pulpit was somewhat dramatic, 
and his representations very life-like. He had the 
singular faculty of creating in the minds of his audience 
the forms and incidents which he narrated. Chester- 
field, the model of the English gentleman, heard him 
on one occasion preach. Mr. Whitefield was comparing 
the condition of a lost sinner to one walking upon a pre- 
cipice in his sleep. His description was so exciting 
that the nobleman really thought that he saw the 
veritable sinner before him, and when Whitefield de- 
scribed him as taking the last and final step over the 
precipice, and exclaiming, with a countenance full of 
the deepest anxiety, " There he falls;'' Chesterfield 
started to his feet, exclaiming, "Save him! save him!" 
But there was a greater triumph than this reserved for 
him. He solicited assistance of Benjamin Franklin, 
the philosopher, to aid his institution in Georgia. 
Franklin declined, unless upon changes suggested by 
him, to which Whitefield objected. Franklin went to 
hear him preach. In his pockets he had copper, silver, 
and gold coins. He was decided not to give anything. 
The orator, however, had not advanced far when Frank- 
lin relented, and concluded to give the coppers, then 
the silver coins, and finally the gold. The true orator 
can hardly fail to carry his point. He will insinuate 
himself into the feelings, will worm himself into the 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 157 

conscience and with a masterly hand will mould his 
audience into his mode of thinking, 

Mr. Whitefield's mind was not of a philosophical 
cast. He was not versed in natural science. He could 
not lay claim to great originality ; nor had he the scho- 
lastic acquirements of Wesley. He had, however, a 
far-reaching intellectual eye, by which he gathered ma- 
terials from distant sources, and bringing them to a 
point, pressed them with striking effect upon the minds 
of his audience. His pictures of the death-bed scene — 
the struggle of the dying sinner — the grave-— the angel 
of wrath — the flames of perdition- — the howlings of the 
lost, and all the terribleness of eternity, would be so life- 
like and so urgently pressed upon the sinner, that he 
would become restless and almost frightened into obe- 
dience. He would sometimes lead them to the cross 
by strains of pathetic tenderness ; but as a general 
thing, he called to his aid the thunders of God's wrath, 
and made them willing in the day of his power. 

And, after all, there was no visible artifice to work 
upon the passions of his audience. It was truth in its 
simplicity, without the adornment of rhetoric. He be- 
lieved what he said, and he felt what he said ; and hence 
he often indulged in exclamations and appeals. He was 
a terror among the wicked, and his success in making'con- 
verts among them excited their hatred. He said to a 
friend, that on one occasion his courage nearly failed him. 
He was preaching in the open air ; a crowd of disorderly 
persons were advancing towards him with evil designs 
— his voice trembled ; his wife, who stood just behind 
him, saw he was disturbed, and seizing him by the 
14 



158 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

gown, which he usually wore on such occasions, pulled 
it, saying at the same time, u John, play the man this 
time." The words of that wife roused him ; his voice 
pealed forth in thunders of denunciations, and the dis- 
orderly crowd were awed into passiveness. There 
never was a man, since the days of the Apostles, whose 
preaching produced such wonderful effect. He seemed 
on no occasion to fail ; but to move and sway his au- 
dience at his will. 

I am indebted to a Methodist paper for the substance 
of the following fact. He was preaching in the city 
of Boston during a thunder-storm. The house shook 
from dome to floor, and his audience became alarmed. 
He stepped back a few paces and prayed. In the tem- 
porary lull of the storm, he gave out the following 

hymn : 

" Hark ! the Eternal rends the sky, 
A mighty voice before Him goes ; 
A voice of music to His friends, 

But threatening thunder to His foes. 

" Come, children, to your Father's arms, 
Hide in the chambers of His grace, 
Till the fierce storm be overblown, 
And my revenging fury cease." 

The effect of this hymn sung to the tune of Old 
Hundred was electric. Their bosoms heaved under 
the swell of religious emotions. Soon, those dark 
clouds began to break, and the sharp peals of thunder 
died away into faint and distant murmurs. The sun 
burst through the cloudy garment that had concealed 
it, and there stood in loveliness a gorgeous rainbow. 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 159 

The noble preacher, true to his art, seized the occasion 
to produce another effect, and pointing his audience to 
that beautiful bow, reminded them, that it was a pledge 
of God's unchanging love. The transition from fear 
to admiration was instantaneous. Emotions of dread 
gave place to those of confidence and love, and the 
preacher, through the agency of this providential event, 
added another gem to beautify and enlarge his reputa- 
tion. 

I cannot pass over in silence an event, which, though 
not possessing the same interest, because not generally 
known, yet furnishes us with a striking illustration of 
the moral sublime. Rev. Dr. R. Fuller of Baltimore 
is known among Baptist^, generally, in the United 
States, as one among our most effective preachers. He 
took passage for Europe. The vessel in which he 
sailed encountered a dreadful storm. The waves beat 
wrathfully against the frail ship, and tossed her upon 
the sea like a bubble. The shrouds howled under the 
fierceness of the blast, and the timbers creaked and 
groaned in every joint. The scene was terrible. Brave 
men stood trembling; their faces turned pale; their 
bosoms heaved under the throbbings of their hearts, 
and death seemed inevitable. The preacher, true to 
the injunction, " Be instant in season and out of season," 
clasped one of the masts with his left arm, and with 
his right, gesticulated, and exhorted the men, while 
the tears were bathing his cheeks, to prepare for death. 
There was more moral sublimity in this scene than in 
Mr. Whitefield's thunder-storm sermon. The time, the 
place, the circumstance invest it with a higher order 



160 WH1TEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

of moral grandeur and heroism. It was a practical 
test in its most terrible form of the vigor of his faith 
and the fidelity of his calling. The records of eterni- 
ty may show that that extraordinary effort was not 
without the most happy effects. 

DR. THOMAS CHALMERS. 

Dr. Chalmers was born in Scotland at Anstruther, 
in Fifeshire, on March 17th, 1780. He was in Scot- 
land, as a preacher, what Robert Hall was in Eng- 
land. They were contemporaries, though Mr. Hall 
was something older. Dr. Chalmers died near Edin- 
burgh, May 31st, 1848, in the sixty-fourth year of 
his age. He very justly enjoyed a high reputation as 
a preacher. Some of the most distinguished men of 
his age heard him not only w r ith interest, but with 
pleasure, and some with admiration. Critics, philoso- 
phers, and statesmen were charmed with the splendor 
of his discourses. For fifteen years he was professor 
at Edinburgh. His astronomical discourses were more 
popular than the Waverley Novels. Twenty thousand of 
these discourses were sold in less than one year. Haz- 
litt, Wilberforce, Channing, Robert Hall, John Foster, 
Jeffrey, and Lockhart were often his hearers and ad- 
mirers. 

The mind of Dr. Chalmers was undoubtedly cast 
in a fine mould. There were symmetry, beauty, and 
a genius, which, if not as creative as Pascal's or Shak- 
speare's, was, at least, very little inferior to either. His 
mind was rich in classical literature, and his know- 
ledge of theology was accurate and extensive, while 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 161 

his large acquaintance with science gave him an en- 
viable distinction. Possessed of vast materials, and a 
mind thoroughly disciplined, he became an intellec- 
tual giant. He was at home in every department of 
literature. He could entertain philosophers with the 
subtleties of metaphysical arguments, or gratify the 
most fastidious taste with the lofty melody of his lan- 
guage. To a mind enriched with the gems of litera- 
ture, he added a child-like sweetness of temper. His 
preparations for the pulpit and lecture-room were al- 
ways thorough. He drank deeply of the fountain of 
inspiration, and his expositions of the Bible were al- 
ways fresh and interesting. Like other great men of 
liberal views, he believed in civil and religious free- 
dom, as the proper condition to develop the powers of 
man morally and religiously. His religious character 
bore a striking resemblance to his intellectual, in lofti- 
ness and symmetry. He possessed fervency and in- 
tensity, but he never exceeded the boundary of pro- 
priety. His moral nature would sometimes gush out 
in refreshing streams, sometimes blaze like the evening 
star, and sometimes would assume the gorgeous beauty 
of the rainbow ; but never, the appearance of the thun- 
der-cloud. He was as much loved out of the pulpit 
as in it. The eminence to which he rose was not 
sought after by him from motives of ambition, but 
rather as an instrument to advance his usefulness. He 
knew that man's power was in proportion to his sanc- 
tified ability ; that learning, consecrated by piety, made 
man more influential; and though it increased his re- 
sponsibility, yet enhanced the chances of reward, and 

14* 



162 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

opened a wider field for the display of a divine appro- 
bation. The sense of his responsibility led him to 
make extraordinary efforts to meet public expectation. 
He wrote, studied, and preached with an industry al- 
most unexampled. He reflected upon the intellectual 
necessities of the age and sought to strike out some 
more fascinating mode of preaching, which, while it 
did not compromise the truth, yet made it more attrac- 
tive. He rejected the fanciful exuberance of the more 
flippant French preachers, and the too cold and prolix 
style of the English divines. He amalgamated them, 
then chiselled them down to due proportions, polished 
them with the graces of rhetoric, and presented us 
with a style as beautiful and attractive for the pulpit, 
as Sir Walter Scott had done in novel-writing for the 
world of fiction. Hence his ministry forms a new era 
in pulpit oratory. 

Dr. Chalmers was not a revivalist in the American 
acceptation of that term. He was ardent and vehe- 
ment ; but he practiced no art to stir the passions of 
his audience. He was inferior to Jonathan Edwards 
as a logician, and I think, also, less pointed and effec- 
tive, though more popular, more dazzling, more at- 
tractive, and more sublime. In some respects, there 
was a resemblance between him and Massillon, though 
Massillon was more forcible and impressive, and had 
a larger share of pulpit strategy. Chalmers was, like 
the kaleidoscope, ever beautiful, whichever way the 
intellectual eye may view him. His gems were al- 
ways rich, varied and splendid, and never produced 
satiety. 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 163 

As textual preachers, Melvill and Jay were his su- 
periors; but bis inferiors in grandeur of thought and 
felicity of expression. John Foster, the English di- 
vine, and author of " Decision of Character," was more 
original, but not so lofty and impassioned. Jeremy 
Taylor possessed a more exuberant fancy, but he had 
not the organ-like melody of Chalmers. If he (Chal- 
mers) had not the depth of Vinet, he surpassed him in 
the beauty and elegance of expression. If he had not 
the polish and compactness of Hall, he was his superior 
in naturalness of expression, and in the fervor and 
energy of his style. The amplification of his mode of 
preaching may be considered a defect, yet we know 
that it is an invaluable gift among orators to intensify 
a leading idea or thought,— to press it home by illus- 
trations until it assumes a palpable form, having, as 
it were, a habitation and a name in the minds of his 
audience. 

The splendor of his language did not obscure the 
force and beauty of his thoughts; a diamond-like bril- 
liancy surrounded them, and threw its coruscations 
over the memory of his audience, not easily to be for- 
gotten. He had the peculiar faculty of reducing the 
most incongruous and chaotic materials into order, 
beauty and symmetry, and to classify and methodize 
every topic ; and make the darkest subject transparent 
to the dullest intellect. The bursts of enthusiasm that 
irradiated his thoughts for a moment, w r ere not the glow 
of a meteoric fancy, but the coruscations of an exalted 
imagination. He always soared high; and w T ith his 
lofty thoughts and rich sonorous diction would elevate 



164 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

his hearers to himself. If he erred at all, it was on 
the side of grandeur. 

He seems not to have had any particular model be- 
fore him, but to have combined all parts of excellen- 
cies, and formed his style upon his own ideal model of 
beauty, to inflame his imagination and intensify his 
eloquence. Had he the searching power of Whitefield, 
the conciseness and rhetorical beauty of Hall, the 
compact unity of Wesley, the force and energy of 
Baxter, and the unction of Payson, he would have been 
everywhere acknowledged the Demosthenes of the 
pulpit. As it is, however, very few, if any, have sur- 
passed him. The popularity of Dr. Chalmers was 
owing chiefly to the melody of his style, and the 
intense fervor of his manner. His energy knew no 
abatement. He would hurry you on from one scene 
of beauty to another, until he would bewilder you 
with the luxury of his thoughts. The diffusion of his 
style was a defect, but was compensated by the interest 
which he aw 7 akened. If he took you over more ground 
to show you his gems, he gave you more time to study 
and appreciate them. If he travelled further for argu- 
ments, he made the journey more picturesque, and the 
entertainment more agreeable and instructive. 

His acquaintance, too, with natural science, espe- 
cially astronomy, added much to his power. With a 
mind trained to the investigation of abstract truths, and 
disciplined by a rigid application of the best mode of 
attaining the style of a lofty eloquence, he could 
demonstrate the necessity of Christian duty and evan- 
gelical morality. When the infidel asserted, that God 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 165 

would not care for so small a planet as ours to provide 
a Saviour, when there are so many others of superior 
dimensions and splendor, it was Dr. Chalmers who 
met this objection by calling attention to the micro- 
scope, that revealed to us in infinitesimal numbers the 
minute existences of organic life. Invisible as they 
are to the natural eye, yet sharing the protection of 
God in common with ourselves, why should not man 
bearing the moral image of God be viewed as favorably 
as the higher order of intelligences ? Dr. Chalmers 
stands very much in relation to the religious world as 
Newton to the philosophical. After all, it will be very 
difficult to convey to your minds any just idea of him 
as a preacher. You must see him and hear him. His 
appearance in the pulpit, his gestures, his features, his 
voice, his articulation, his strategy, his advances, his 
retreats, his forced marches, his ambuscades, must 
all pass in review, before we can appreciate his power 
as a pulpit orator. A\ r e know him only through his 
writings, and we can imagine from these and the tes- 
timony of others his character as a preacher. It is 
conceded, however, that in all that constitutes a pulpit 
orator, he was a star of the highest magnitude. 

REV. ROBERT HALL. 

However pleasing it may be to my feelings to con- 
tinue my notice of Dr. Chalmers, I must call your 
attention to Mr. Robert Hall of England, whose repu- 
tation as a man of genius was unquestioned. He was 
born at Ainsbay on the 2d of May, 1764, and was about 
sixteen years older than Dr. Chalmers. In his infancy 



106 WHITEF1ELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

he was sickly, and strong fears were entertained that 
he w 7 ould not live. He was placed in the hands of a 
nurse, who often took him to a grave-yard, and there 
made use of the letters on the tomb-stones to teach him 
the alphabet. At school he made great proficiency in 
his studies, and his teachers found it difficult to keep 
pace with him. Though possessing, naturally, a fine 
imagination, yet he was fond of metaphysical subjects ; 
and before he was ten years old he had mastered Ed- 
wards on "The Affections," and " Butler's Analogy of 
Religion." In England, where intellectual merit is 
fostered and pensioned, it was not long before Mr. Hall 
began to excite attention, and draw around him such 
men as Dr. Johnson, Mcintosh, Edmund Burke, Dr. 
Ryland, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Evans, Erskine, Thomson 
and others. Strangers, attracted to his church from his 
great reputation, were often disappointed in the begin- 
ning of his sermons. He spoke low, and with some 
hesitation; but as he advanced in his subject, his feel- 
ings wouM warm up, his imagination would break into 
brilliant coruscations, and his whole body seemed to 
glow with the fervor of animation. As to his features, 
they were large and full, and corresponded with the 
massive structure of his mind. 

If you ask me what it was that gave to Mr. Hall 
this wonderful power in the pulpit, I would say it was 
his genius, his splendid imagination, his richly culti- 
vated intellect, and his enthusiasm. If you ask what 
is eloquence, I answer in the language of another, "It 
is rhetoric set on fire." In the more elevated forms of 
eloquence, there must be noble thoughts, lofty emo- 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 167 

tions, inspiring diction, which like the electric spark 
must flash from one mind to another, communicating 
like effects. A beautiful rose, a flowery landscape, a 
lovely face, a noble act are said to be eloquent, because 
they affect us, and infuse something of their own beauty 
within us. Our very silence may be eloquent. But 
that man who has the noblest nature, the finest intel- 
lect, the purest morals, the greatest art to communicate 
his thoughts, and infuse his own emotions into the 
bosom of others, will be the most eloquent. The 
subject and the occasion, though not the cause of elo- 
quence, are accessories. The more noble the subject, 
the more interest at stake, the greater will be the effect. 
If it be true of the poet that he must be born such, it 
is equally true of the orator. There is no royal road 
to oratory. It is a gift which must be perfected by 
patient application of approved rules. 

No one enjoys higher advantages for the display of 
oratorical powers than the minister of the Gospel. He 
is always assisted by the subject, and often by the oc- 
casion; and if he fails to produce an impression, it is 
because be lacks capacity and enthusiasm. Trivial as it 
may seem, there can be no success without enthusiasm. 
Sermons delivered in a cold and formal manner will 
produce little effect. Enthusiasm is to the speaker 
what the steam is to the engine. Fire will communi- 
cate fire. So will one soul burning with eloquence 
communicate itself to another. When the conceptions 
are lofty, when the emotions are pure, when the soul 
is aglow with the warmth of a holy inspiration, it forms 
a connection with the outer auditory world, like the 



168 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

magnetic pole, conveying intellectual and moral elec- 
tricity from bosom to bosom. Hence eloquence is 
creative and sympathetic. It elevates and ennobles 
our feelings, inspires us with loftier sentiments, and 
imparts a higher order of felicity. It was this kind of 
eloquence that distinguished these three great lumina- 
ries of the pulpit, viz. : Whitefield, Hall, and Chalmers. 
Of the three, Mr. Hall may be considered the most 
finished and accurate, though not the most effective. He 
seems to have rejected the unpolished periods of White- 
field, and the somewhat greater diffusiveness of Chal- 
mers. He blended them, modified them, reduced them to 
symmetry, and wore them as the legitimate productions 
of his own creative genius. As a familiar illustration 
of the distinction in these three orators, I would say : 
The efforts of Mr. Whitefield were like a number of 
drums, fifes, flutes, clarionets, tamborines, all in full 
blast, yet all in concert, with feet beating to the time. 
The efforts of Dr. Chalmers were like the organ in its 
full melody, rolling, and swelling, and pealing, rising 
and falling with its sonorous cadences, in which the 
harp and accordion are blended, making luxurious 
music. The efforts of Mr. Hall were like a trained 
and skilful band of musicians, each an amateur, with 
perfect instruments, chiming in at the right time and 
place, producing one grand chorus, transporting and 
electrifying. 

It is conceded that Mr. Hall is the most finished of 
the three, and that he will be read and admired when 
the others are neglected. Even before his voice began 
to peal out its rich music, the attention was fixed, and 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 169 

every countenance betrayed the deepest anxiety to hear 
him. And when he rose to his sublimest strains, when 
his eyes began to flash, when his features were all 
aglow, when his very body seemed to throw off the 
scintillations of his burning thoughts, when every 
nerve seemed to thrill under the inspiration of his sub- 
ject, there was a profound and thoughtful silence, like 
that which nature feels, when she is about collecting 
her energies to develop some grand result. Hence long 
before the sermon was concluded, many of his auditors 
rose to their feet, unconscious of the power that had 
transformed them into groups of living statues. This 
wonderful power is in part to be ascribed to his piety, 
the grandeur of his thoughts, the elegance of his com- 
position, his vivid imagination, and his well-sustained 
enthusiasm. He never stopped like Chalmers and 
Massillon to display a few gems, until you became ac- 
quainted with their merits. His casket was too full. 
He scattered them around you with the greatest pro- 
fusion, and assigned to you the task of gathering them 
up and luxuriating in the beauty and splendor of their 
brilliancy. He knew well, as a finished orator, that 
intellectual taste, fine rhetoric, burning thoughts, glow- 
ing illustrations, classical diction were necessary to 
success ; and these he sought after, cultivated and car- 
ried to the highest point of perfection, and consecrated 
them by a living piety. Though he was not instru- 
mental in converting as many as Mr. Whitefield and Dr. 
Byland, yet he attracted those to the sanctuary who 
would not otherwise attend. The brilliancy of his 
talents, the splendor of his imagination, the elegance 
15 



170 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

of his diction, the massive grandeur of his thoughts, 
and his lofty eloquence, produced a magnetic influence 
among men of letters, and thus gave him an opportu- 
nity to impress them with the moral grandeur of Chris- 
tianity. 

As the stars of heaven are not all of the same mag- 
nitude and brilliancy, yet each fulfills its mission, so 
have Whitefield, Hall and Chalmers gloriously accom- 
plished the work assigned them by the great Head of 
the Church. They may differ in magnitude and lus- 
tre; but the world is none the less benefited by the 
converging splendor of their labors. Perfection is not 
the lot of man, and, unfortunately for Mr. Hall, he 
was in one point defective as a preacher. He was too 
mild and sparing in the denunciation of sin. He was 
too afraid to offend his hearers. He showed the evil 
of sin more, as reflected in the magnitude of the remedy, 
than in the evil of sin itself. He probed the sinner's 
heart deep at times ; but his mistaken tenderness would 
lead him to cover up the wounds with the roses of 
rhetoric. He wielded a mighty sword ; but it was 
festooned with garlands and ribbons of a refined dic- 
tion that dulled its edge.. He did much good; but not 
in proportion to his wonderful talents and abilities. 
He was sometimes too addicted to the habit of flattering 
royalty. In this respect, he showed himself inferior to 
Massillon, to whom he was superior in genius, imagina- 
tion, and grasp of thought, 

It was before the court of Louis XIV. of France 
that Massillon was invited to preach. The royal au- 
dience was most elegantly dressed. Men of fashion 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 171 

and literature were present. The speaker rose in the 
pulpit and announced for his text — " Blessed are they 
that mourn." A shade of disappointment mantled 
their features ; but it was not long before that momen- 
tary cloud was dissipated by the sunshine of a beauti- 
ful exordium. "Sire," said he, "if the world were 
about to address you, it would not say, blessed are 
they that mourn, but blessed is the Prince, who never 
fought but to conquer, who filled the universe with 
his name. But, Sire, Jesus Christ speaks not as the 
world speaks. Blessed, says Christ, not he who enjoys 
the admiration of the world, but he who makes pre- 
paration for the world to come; who lives in humility 
and is an heir of the kingdom of heaven." A eulogy 
so ingeniously blended with admonition, did not fail 
to make a happy impression upon the minds of his 
royal audience. "Sire," said the king, "when I hear 
other men preach, I am pleased with them ; but when 
I hear you preach, I am displeased with myself." 

It was just here, I think, Mr. Hall failed. His au- 
dience, with few exceptions, were all pleased with him 
rather than displeased with themselves. He had not 
the artistic skill to convert incidents into the elements 
of pulpit power. He was too burdened with his sub- 
ject to engraft incidental thoughts and allusions. He 
would not allow himself to be diverted from the lead- 
ing ideas of his subject, which he had wrought out 
with laborious patience. As a sample of his more la- 
bored composition, I give the following : " The im- 
passioned eloquence, the daring heroism, the exalted 
patriotism so eminent among the early Greeks and 



172 WHITEFIELD, DR. THOMAS CHALMERS AND 

Romans, owed their origin to those ideal models of 
perfection that were always present to their imagina- 
tion." 

Mr. Hall did not consider it inconsistent with the 
ministerial office to speak and write on political ques- 
tions. He regarded this as a part of the Gospel, as a 
means of giving moral tone to society ; hence some of 
his writings are political. He was a warm advocate of 
civil and religious freedom. These he considered as 
essential to the purity and development of Christianity. 
Apostolic succession, and the pretensions of the Church 
of Rome, he discussed with candor, and sometimes with 
severity. The cause of public education among the 
poor, the cause of missions, the freedom of the press, 
and the right of public discussion, he defended with an 
ability that must long command public attention. 
These efforts will long endear the memory of this gifted 
orator, and will remain the most splendid monuments 
of his genius. 

In conclusion, I would say, that there are some 
points of resemblance between these three great lumi- 
naries of the pulpit. Mr. Whitefield began to preach 
when he was twenty-two, Mr. Chalmers, when he was 
twenty-one, and Mr. Hall, when he was sixteen. All 
three lived in exciting times, and were more or less in- 
volved in church differences. Whitefield sided with 
Wesley, Chalmers with the Free Church of Scotland, 
and Hall with the open communionists. Whitefield 
lived to the age of fifty-six, Chalmers to the age of 
sixty-four, and Hall to the age of sixty-eight. Chal- 
mers and Hall were both unconverted when called to 



ROBERT HALL AS PULPIT ORATORS. 173 

the ministry, and after their conversion they both dis- 
played a similar zeal. These three great and good 
men died suddenly, as if God for their labors would 
spare them the agony of a protracted sickness. The 
world will not immediately behold such pulpit orators 
as these three eminent men were. Canning has risen 
up in Scotland, but he is not equal to his predecessor. 
Spurgeon has acquired much reputation as a preacher 
in England, but he fades in comparison with Mr. Hall. 
No one has yet risen, who presumes to be superior to 
Mr. Whitefield. He stands solitary, alone, and unap- 
proachable. With truth, he is the Demosthenes of the 
pulpit, Chalmers, the Cicero, and Hall, the Webster. 
AVhitefield is like the old Roman knight, heavily 
armed, wdiose weight alone is sufficient to crush out 
his foes. Chalmers is like the knight of the Temple, 
with boots, and spurs, and highly polished spear, that 
dazzlingly flashes in the sunlight. Hall is like Bayard, 
the modern knight, of sublime bearing, who wields a 
Damascus blade, that gleams like a diamond from 
point to hilt. Neither, separately considered, can be 
said to be perfect; exclude their imperfections, and 
combine their better qualities, and they will form the 
most splendid model of pulpit oratory. 



15* 



174 SABBATH- SCHOOL ADDRESS. 



SABBATH-SOHOOL ADDRESS. 



DELIVERED ON SABBATH MORNING- OF THE 18TH OF OCTOBER, 
1874, BEFORE THE BARNWELL SABBATH-SCHOOL CONVENTION, 
CONVENED IN THE SEVEN PINES CHURCH. 



The work in which we are engaged is one of moral 
grandeur — one which has engaged the talents and 
wealth of some of our most gifted men, both in Europe 
and America. Mr. Raikes has the honor of being the 
first who instituted the Sabbath-school. The unedu- 
cated children of the poor arrested his attention. The 
benevolence of his nature led him to gather them on 
the Sabbath, and teach them the elements of the Eng- 
lish language. From this humble beginning the 
Sabbath-school rose in importance. The Churches 
began to recognize them in a favorable light, and to 
cherish them as nurseries to replenish their depleted 
ranks. These schools have grown upon our affection, 
and now they stand before us as monuments of our 
well-directed and concentrated effort. That false deli- 
cacy which forbade the mingling of the sexes in the 
prosecution of their studies, was broken by the Sabbath- 
school system, which blended them, and so became a 
precursor of a new era in the destiny of woman. In 
the most enlightened period of Grecian and Roman 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 175 

history she was denied the advantages of a liberal 
education. Under the Jewish dispensation, though 
she was highly respected, yet the culture of her mental 
faculties was grossly neglected ; and even after the 
publication of Christianity she moved in a darkened 
sphere until the Reformation dawned, and the Sabbath- 
school system opened a field for the exercise of her 
faculties. She now moves in a higher sphere, and 
is hailed by man with pleasure as an assistant, a co- 
worker in teaching the young how to venerate the 
institutions of God. 

Man is an intellectual being — his reasoning faculties 
give him power over nature, and he can explore her 
hidden recesses, and multiply the sources of his own 
happiness, and add to the felicity of others. Alone he 
may with a cultivated mind enter into the inner cham- 
ber of his soul, and hold communion with departed 
worth ; may muse upon the infinite variety of things ; 
may find a language in a flower, in a running stream, 
in a falling meteor, or in a wandering comet ; and from 
these physical objects he may look up to God, the 
source of all created excellence, and find in Him a 
fountain of inexhaustible glories that may engage his 
profoundest contemplation. The exercise of reflection, 
while it pleases, wil] at the same time expand his men- 
tal powers, ennoble his faculties, refine his taste, and 
inspire him with a love for what is true and beautiful. 
An educated mind makes man independent of external 
associations and combinations for his happiness, and 
influences him to lean more upon himself for enjoyment 
than upon others. By the impressions of lofty ideas, 



176 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

it elevates his character, brings him more under 
spiritual influences, and clothes him with a purer mo- 
rality. The conquest of the mind, while it affords 
more pleasure, is more elevating and refining. The 
victories of battles, or the success of the chase, or the 
game, will soon pass from the remembrances of men. 
They will yield no permanent good to the victors, nor 
serve any useful purpose as examples to posterity. Not 
so with man, who has dared to enter the laboratory 
of nature, and, Prometheus-like, seize a treasure, and 
reveal its secret to man. Sir Isaac Newton in the 
discovery of the laws of gravitation, Lord Bacon in 
the triumph of his inductive system of philosophy, 
Sir Humphrey Davy in the discovery of the safety 
lamp, felt no doubt a glow of enthusiasm, like that of 
Archimedes, when he rapturously exclaimed : u I have 
found it ; I have found it." As the light is pleasant, 
as the fragrance of the rose is sweet, and as the sound 
of music is inspiring, so is a cultivated intellect in the 
family circle. Nor is it necessary that it should be a 
man's intellect; the well-read and intelligent child 
may throw a fascinating splendor around its existence, 
that may illumine home, and arch it with a rainbow 
glory. 

The culture of the mind, unaided by religious teach- 
ing, may lead to skepticism. Religious instruction 
binds the soul to God as a centre. The Sabbath-school 
is the centripetal force that confines the youthful mind 
to God, and makes it move in its legitimate orbit. The 
want of it is the centrifugal power that throws the soul 
off at a tangent from God, and makes it wander like a 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 177 

comet through infinite space. Thus, Sir Humphrey 
Davy, Gibbon, Hume, Hobbes, Voltaire, and many 
others, eminent for their intellectual powers, have 
failed to secure the higher order of felicity. Generally, 
they were unhappy, notwithstanding their literary 
popularity, because their lives were not consecrated to 
God, and their labors directed to the moral and spiritual 
elevation of their race. 

It has been observed more than once that the labor- 
ing classes are much more comfortable now than for- 
merly ; that there is less disposition to riot and blood- 
shed, and that extreme profligacy is less frequent ; that 
Ireland, the land of rebellion and popular insurrection, 
is not so prolific in those volcanic passions, that so 
painfully ruptured the bonds of her civil authority. 
She has become more sedate, more orderly, more cir- 
cumspect, and more law-abiding. There is very little 
doubt that this happy change is owing in a great mea- 
sure to the education of the poor, and especially to the 
Sabbath -school system. As time rolls on, and as 
general and religious education is placed within the 
reach of the poorest, and as priestly domination shall 
subside > the moral picture of Ireland will be as agreea- 
ble for our contemplation as the fairest spot in Chris- 
tendom. It is the genius of Romanism to flourish most 
where ignorance predominates, and to decrease where 
intelligence sheds its heavenly radiance. As education 
advances, superstition yields to reason, and reason 
leads to freedom of thought and government. Educa- 
tion among the poor does not necessarily lead to dis- 
content. It is the instrument of happiness, and an 



178 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

important step to their advancement in society. The 
experience of the world is, that the education of the 
poor brings with it mental, pecuniary, commercial and 
social power; that no State having once educated the 
poor, would on any account uneducate them, but 
rather increase their facilities for a higher education. 
The trial which has been made, both in Europe and 
America, in educating the poor, has proved most suc- 
cessful. It is prudent to educate them, as a matter of 
economy; for ignorance would cause more crimes, and 
the expenses incurred in punishing them would cost 
more than the money expended in their education, 
while society at the same time would be rendered not 
only more secure but more prosperous. 

The progress of a nation depends upon the education 
of the people. Education sifts them, separates the gold 
from the dross, brings to our knowledge men of merit. 
The reason Massachusetts is so prosperous, though a 
small State, is, that she makes it a point to educate the 
poorest of her sons and daughters. She touched the 
true key-note of success. She knew that genius was 
more often allied with the poor than the rich ; that ed- 
ucation would lift them above obscurity, and that she 
would secure the mental gems imbedded in the depths 
of their minds. The consequence of this is, that she has 
a larger number of educated men and women, in pro- 
portion to her population, than any other State in the 
Union. There is no danger that educated people will 
forge fetters for themselves. I would by no means 
say that a government is safe from revolution because 
the people are generally well educated ; for human pas- 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 179 

sions will sometimes ascend the throne of reason, and 
launch the State into a storm ; but there is this differ- 
ence, the anger will he less violent, the retribution less 
brutal, and the storm-beaten State will right itself with 
less injury. But if the people be religiously educated, 
as is contemplated in our Sabbath-schools, then errors 
will be more readily acknowledged, reformation will 
be more expeditiously effected, and benevolence will 
rush more promptly to soften the asperity of the evils. 
You will all agree with me that it is more economical 
to teach men to do right, than to punish them for doing 
wrong. It is better to develop their faculties than sup- 
press them; better to make them happy than misera- 
ble ; better to make them industrious than idle ; better 
to make them rich and prosperous, than poor and 
miserable; better to make them Christians than infi- 
dels. Some of the most distinguished men, both in 
Europe and America, have risen from the lowest strata 
of society. They were born great, and no artificial 
incubus could suppress their rise. Abilities are like 
volcanoes. They will break through the conventional 
barriers of society, and public opinion will yield to the 
force of mental power. 

Obedience to God and to existing authority, pro- 
vided it be just, is the legitimate aim of a religious 
education. Public opinion is necessary to the support 
of government; but that opinion must be founded upon 
the laws of equity, and not upon the capricious cla- 
mors of a fickle and ignorant rabble. A secret and 
influential conviction that the existing government, if 
administered with justire, tempered with mercy, is the 



180 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

best for the general good, must have its foundation in 
intelligence and reason. An uneducated mind is not 
in a condition to decide as to the practicability or im- 
practicability of existing laws. And hence changes in 
governments are more frequent among an uneducated 
people than among an educated one. It has ever been 
the history of ignorance to ally itself with anarchy and 
despotism. France, with all its boasted glory, presents 
a melancholy example of the evils of ignorance. Those 
popular insurrections that have so painfully disgraced 
her annals, were mostly instigated by rude and unedu- 
cated men. No greater evil has government to con- 
tend with than ignorance. The present age presents to 
us a new picture, a. new era. The Sabbath-school sys- 
tem has been working for half a century upon the 
moral debris of a corrupt humanity, and the present 
generation in Christendom has passed through its cur- 
riculum, and is to-day reflecting the intelligence and 
moral sentiment of its Sabbath-school training. The 
present status of society, though not as good as I would 
wish it to be, yet owes its origin more to the Sabbath- 
school influence than to any other instrument, the 
Gospel alone excepted. 

It is a singular feature in our natures, that the less 
religious we are, the more inclined we are to anarchy. 
The less the sense of moral responsibility, the stronger 
the love for arbitrary power. Despots and tyrants, in 
former times, belonged to that class of men who feared 
neither God nor man. Some of highly cultivated in- 
tellects, such as Gibbon, Hume, Bolingbroke, Vol- 
taire, and others, who were either atheists or infidels, 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDKESS. 181 

repudiated free governments, while Milton, Baxter, 
Owen, Robert Hall, Chalmers, Roger Williams, and 
many others of high intellect and sterling piety, were 
warm advocates of civil and religious freedom. We 
infer from this that exalted piety is averse to despotism, 
while infidelity sanctions and seeks to perpetuate it. 
The sooner, therefore, we can pre-occupy the youthful 
mind with their responsibilities to God and man, the 
sooner we can make them God-fearing and God-loving 
children, the more certain will be the progress of the 
Church, the higher the standard of morality, and the 
greater the stability of our free institutions. A scheme 
which contemplates these ends, surely, cannot be too 
highly regarded. So long as our children are trained in 
the knowledge of God, and habituated to the duties of 
piety, no fears need be entertained that we shall relapse 
into a state of ancient despotism. An enlightened and 
Christian nation will select their rulers with the same 
freedom that school committees select their county 
teachers, or churches their pastors. The divine right 
of kings has already been exploded, and free govern- 
ments will keep pace with the advancement of litera- 
ture, civilization, and Christianity. The Sabbath - 
school system is the substratum of our civil and reli- 
gious freedom. It is not only the nursery of our 
churches, but also of our government. These schools 
infuse a healthy vigor into every department of society. 
They beautify, enlarge, ennoble our churches, and lay 
the foundation for a general prosperity. They seek, 
like Hercules, to strangle the hydra of ignorance, and 
to give freedom to the spiritually enslaved, by break- 
16 



182 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

ing the shackles of superstition, and putting to the lip 
of the sin-sick soul the sweet and life-giving waters of 
redemption. Blot out these Sabbath-schools, and in a 
few years an age of darkness, gloom and superstition 
will settle upon our land. The dark scenes of perse- 
cution and blood, that marked the age of the Crusades, 
will be re-enacted, and Christ'anity will be known only 
to be condemned. 

Religious parents in former times could not train 
their children to habits of religious thought. Many of 
them, from the defects of their own religious train- 
ing, w T ere incompetent, and the churches thus formed 
were composed of materials too incongruous with the 
spirit of the Gospel to display the higher virtues of 
Christianity. Their orthodoxy was more incoherent; 
their schisms more frequent; the'r persecutions more 
violent, and their fanaticism more rampant. There 
was a want of beauty and symmetry in the ancient 
churches. Their zeal was great, but not according to 
knowledge. They sought to advance the Redeemer's 
kingdom ; more by force than persuasion. The policy 
of building up vigorous and aggressive churches 
through the instrumentality of Sabbath-schools, had 
never entered their minds; and, consequently, they 
could boast of little vitality and spirituality. As a 
natural consequence, these churches sought the aid of 
civil government to advance their interests; and, how- 
ever splendid may have been their career, their history 
was marked with the most shameful irregularities. 

The distinction, furthermore, between the Churches 
now formed, and those in former time*, lies in this, 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 183 

viz., that the churches of the present age are more so- 
ciable. Before the Sabbath-school system became gen- 
eral, the poor and middle classes in the Church, who 
composed the workers, were seldom brought in contact 
with the children of the richer members. The Sab- 
bath-school blended them for the time being; annihi- 
lated distinction ; bridged up this social hiatus — the 
teacher and scholar lived upon terms of mutual friend- 
ship — the vanity of earthly distinction was taught to the 
richer pupils, and they grew up with a love for virtue, 
which they venerated, whether they saw it clad in the 
rude habiliments of the poor, or adorned in the more 
ornamental and fastidious trappings of the rich. Hence 
there is less social distinction in our churches, and all 
classes are brought more immediately under the full 
power of the Church. Such a state of things leads to 
higher development. We see in our churches less 
pride, less indolence, less schism. The aim is more 
elevated, the benevolence is more general and uniform, 
the concentration of power higher, and the efforts more 
intelligently directed. 

It is very difficult to draw a line of distinction be- 
tween those impressions made in the Sabbath-school, 
and those in maturer years. The character of man is 
made up from impressions and opinions fostered, either 
in youth or in manhood. As it is impossible for the 
whole to exist without the sum of all its parts, so it is 
equally impossible for a man's character to exist, as a 
whole, without the sum of all those impressions that 
made it. The Sabbath-school system is so largely in- 
fluential in moulding the members of our churches, 



184 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

that it is difficult to draw a line of distinction between 
the efforts of the preacher and the Sabbath- school in- 
struction. They both, conjointly, have contributed to 
the present status of our churches. The seeds sown 
in the Sabbath-school are to ripen in the Church The 
quality of the seeds will decide the character of the 
fruits. The purer the principles taught, the more dis- 
tinctly and accurately they are impressed, the nobler 
will be the manhood. The Sabbath-schools are small, 
rippling streams, which widen and deepen, as the pu- 
pils advance, till they lose themselves in the deeper 
waters of the Church, beautifying and enhancing it 
with a higher membership. The moral and spiritual 
elevation of our churches, the vast power they are ex- 
ercising, the prodigious sacrifices they are making for 
the good of our race, the unwearied effort they are 
putting forth to disseminate the truths of Christianity, 
attest in no ordinary degree the power of the Chris- 
tian Church. This peculiar change in Churches of 
modern times, compared with more ancient ones, is 
not because of any supernatural agencies, but because 
the under strata of our churches in the form of Sab- 
bath-schools are of better material, more tractable, more 
malleable, and boast a higher order of Scriptural in- 
telligence. 

The standard too of morality is far more elevated 
now than formerly. The slavish devotion to ancient 
institutions is gradually yielding to the advances of an 
enlightened civilization. Human character has evi- 
dently become refined; investigations have led to the 
subversion of false theories, and man is rising every 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 185 

day to a sense of his own responsibility and spiritual 
importance. He is more free from the shackles of 
superstition and the trammels of antiquated opinions. 
He is becoming more and more conscious of his digni- 
ty — his high destiny, and he stands more upon his 
own merit than upon the name and reputation of his 
ancestors. There is a tendency in the elements that 
surround him to neutralize artificial distinctions. The 
improvement of the mind, the elegance and embellish- 
ments of refined society are not so averse to a vigorous 
and industrious activity. The advancement of the 
fine arts, the triumph of science, the moral and reli- 
gious elevation of mankind, are advancing with colos- 
sal strides. We owe these great changes in part to the 
progress of civilization — to the freedom of the press — 
to the industries of nations — to the critical discussions 
of scientific questions; but more especially to the teach- 
ings of the Bible. A Galileo may now advocate the 
Copernican system without the fear of death, and a 
Jenner may expatiate on the advantages of inocula- 
tion without the jeer of ridicule. It is a glorious 
triumph for the cause of humanity, that religion and 
science are not inimical, but are one in purpose, the 
former to teach the benevolence of God to man by pre- 
cept, and the latter to enforce it by demonstration. 

Man is naturally avaricious. He seeks generally 
to advance his own good at the expense of others. He 
too often forgets that the happiness and prosperity of 
others are interwoven with his own, and that if the 
world could gratify its selfishness, the tenderest rela- 
tions would be broken. Society would pass through 

16* 



186 SABBATII-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

an upheaval, and the fabric of the finest government 
would crumble into atoms. The Sabbath-school meets 
this evil in its incipiency.. It teaches the youthful 
mind that love is the noblest virtue, and the more be- 
nevolent man is the more will he resemble God. 
This precept is carried into effect. The young are 
taught to give. As their little footsteps mark their 
accustomed way to the Sabbath-school, they bear, in 
their tiny purses, their offering. They give cheerfully 
for the heathen, for the orphan, and for the sick. This 
love of giving grows with their growth ; and hence, 
when they become members of the Church, they go 
forward and engage in every benevolent enterprise. 

The observance of the Sabbath becomes a weariness 
to most men, because they were not trained to a sacred 
remembrance of it. Their minds are either occupied 
on that clay in diversions or recreations, or they are 
confined in their counting-rooms, calculating their 
losses and their gains; and thus the day of rest is des- 
ecrated. The young in the Sabbath schools are taught 
to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. A taste 
for religion is thus formed, and sermons are far more 
relished than theatrical performances. The superficial 
eye is not able to perceive those delicate relations w T hich 
a religious observance of the Sabbath sustains to the 
peace of society, to the sympathy of humanity, to the 
security of government, to the progress of wealth, to 
the expansion of commerce, and to all that constitutes 
civil and moral greatness. The infidel mistakes the 
benefits of the Sabbath when he supposes those benefits 
are connected only with the imagination, and are of no 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 187 

practical importance. These benefits are real and not 
imaginary, and are often productive of immediate 
good. The infidel writers, however, are not the only 
ones who seek to bring Christianity into disrepute, and 
indirectly pollute the youthful mind. These writers 
are not many, and their books, besides, are not often 
placed in the hands of the young. The youth of the 
present age stands in danger from another source ; it is 
the example of men and women of influential position, 
who studiously violate the Sabbath, and more espe- 
cially those parents who are indifferent in its obser- 
vance. The Christian religion would lose much of its 
power without the public observance of the Sabbath. 
No private worship could be found strong enough, 
though sustained by splendid talents, to invigorate and 
enhance its vitality. The holy plant of Christianity 
would not bloom with so rich a foliage, nor be so pro- 
lific in its fruits, were it taught only in the nursery. 
Christianity was never intended for the family alone. 
It is too aggressive in its nature, and too strongly im- 
pregnated with the elements of divine benevolence to 
be satisfied with a circumscribed influence. It may be 
silent for a time, but then again, it will flash out like 
lightning, and peal its notes in tones of thunder, or it 
may rave and expand with the fury of the storm. It 
contains an active principle, and hence it needs scope. 
Earth itself is too limited for the display of its powers; 
and hence religion connects the imagination with eter- 
nity as the proper field for the full display of its elas- 
tic powers. 

A system, like the Sabbath-school, which keeps our 



188 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

temples open ; which draws into the pulpit men of 
noted piety and talents; which forces teachers to be 
prompt and accurate in learning the Scriptures ; which 
makes superintendents good Biblical scholars ; which 
extends its influence to ministers, to parents, and to 
churches, and which seeks to fit the soul for heaven, 
should command our warmest approbation. It is here, 
in the Sabbath-school, if any where, you are to find 
examples of splendid morality. We have, it is true, 
no ideal models of perfection to inspire our bosom to 
elevated effort. No imaginary standard of heroism to 
excite our emulation ; but we have the life of Christ 
and his apostles, in whom are blended all the excel- 
lencies of moral and religious greatness. Upon these, 
the young may build their religious character, and 
grow up to be representative men and women in the 
Church of Christ. 

In the Sabbath-school, too, the sublimest of all reli- 
gions is taught. It deals not in mythological fables • 
but with heaven-taught truths. It does not perplex 
the mind with frightful images of a ghostly throng; 
nor does it seek our happiness in the pomp and for- 
malities of a heartless devotion. Its forms and cere- 
monies are simple, but the inner power is transforming. 
It demands no bodily sacrifice for sin to appease an 
offended Divinity. It repudiates austerity and sensu- 
ality alike. It is spiritual and holy, and constrains 
the indulgence of the passions. It is, generally, uni- 
form in emotion, and prefers knowledge to extravagant 
zeal. It avoids questions of civil and ecclesiastical po- 
licy, and seeks the good of the individual. It teaches 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 189 

forgiveness of injury — to favor, rather than to injure 
another — to be kind and generously affected to all 
mankind. The religion too taught in our Sabbath- 
schools is opposed to pride, to ambition, to the heroic 
character, as taught by Homer and Virgil. It places 
before us nobler examples, which the world is begin- 
ning to admire more and more. Mothers do not now 
point to Agamemnon, nor to Hector, nor to JEneas, as 
models by w T hich to shape the character of their chil- 
dren, but to Christ and his apostles. The religion of 
the Bible will yet triumph. Nations will settle their 
disputes by courts and not by the sword. War shall 
cease, and a common bond of sympathy shall bind all 
nationalities. 

The religion taught in our Sabbath-schools is not 
sectional, but like its great Author, it flows out in 
generous impulses to all classes ; loves all, and cherishes 
all, and seeks to bless all. It cautions us of the short- 
ness of life, and modifies our affection for a world that, 
is fleeting. It reconciles us to disappointments, and 
lessens our vehemence in the pursuit of pleasure. Such 
is the religion we teach to the young; and if this reli- 
gion had been taught to them from the introduction of 
Christianity the world would not have been so deluged 
with crime and anarchy, but would now have blossomed 
as the rose. 

Our prospect is highly encouraging. The young are 
rapidly advancing in Biblical knowledge. A child 
now of ordinary attainments in one of our Sabbath- 
schools is better acquainted w T ith Scripture than some 
of the priests in the olden times. The seeds of divine 



190 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

truth take root more rapidly in their hearts, and the 
fruits of the Spirit are purer. Our teachers and su- 
perintendents are struggling to keep pace with their 
advancement; and churches should afford every facility 
to advance the qualification of teachers, that more 
thoroughness and accuracy may he secured. There is 
no book that inspires the human mind with such noble 
sentiments as the Bible. The precepts of the Bible 
are the purest. The characters of the prophets and 
apostles are of the noblest type, and the informa- 
tion the most vital. Wherever the Bible is studied 
the marks of improvement have been the most decided. 
In no case should the youthful mind be diverted from 
the solid and more useful reading of the Scriptures. Cau- 
tion should be exercised against works of religious fic- 
tion, too many of which have already found their way in- 
to our Sabbath-schools. These books pervert the taste, 
and gradually diminish in the mind of the young a 
love for the Bible; and thus a general desire is created 
for works of higher fiction. Never, to my knowledge, 
have professors been more addicted to the habit of 
reading light literature, than at the present age. In 
some cases the foundation has been laid in our Sabbath- 
schools by trashy and injudicious books, published, no 
doubt from good motives, but unwisely selected for the 
young. To convert the scholar is the chief object of 
the Sabbath-school ; to bring him immediately under 
holy influences ; to set him at variance with the sins 
that would enslave him, to make his errors burden- 
some and oppressive to him, and thus force him to 
flee from the wrath to come, and take refuge in the 



SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 191 

bosom of the Redeemer. Piety never injures, but al- 
ways promotes the interest of a child ; and the sooner 
our children become pious the happier will be their 
lives, and the more glorious will be their immortality. 
We are more than pleased at our progress. It was 
the wish of Franklin that he might be permitted two 
hundred years after his death to visit his country. If 
this wish could be granted how astonished would he 
be ! Electricity, which he bottled by means of a kite, 
he would now see made use of to communicate thoughts 
thousands of miles in a few moments. The cable across 
the Atlantic would overwhelm him with surprise. The 
railroads, the steamboats, the progress of science, the 
wealth, the intelligence, the numerous cities, the growth 
of population, would inspire his bosom with the noblest 
emotions of joy. And so would it be with Raikes, the 
founder of the Sabbath-school system, could he rise 
from the dead and see the tens of thousands of children 
hastening on with hurried steps to their respective 
schools ; the progress they are making ; the vast 
amount of literature published for their benefit, and 
the onward moving tide of this youthful humanity into 
the bosom of the Church, to replenish, strengthen, 
and adorn it with a higher membership. He would 
feel his bosom glow with ecstacy, and thank God that 
he ever began so noble a work. In Europe and Ame- 
rica the cause of Sabbath-schools is advancing. Every 
day strength is gained. The kingdom of Christ is 
verging to the zenith of its glory. Our churches are 
expanding into holier proportions. The mission of 
Christ is advancing to its consummation, the Star of 



192 SABBATH-SCHOOL ADDRESS. 

Bethlehem is shining with more than its primeval lus- 
tre, and the angels of heaven have already seized their 
harps, waiting to usher in the dawn of the millenium. 

" Come, let our voices join 

In joyful songs of praise ; 
To God, the God of love, 

Our thankful hearts we'll raise : 
To God alone all praise belongs — 
Oar earliest and our latest songs. 

" Within these hallowed walls 

Our wandering feet are brought, 

Where prayer and praise ascend, 
And heavenly truths are taught ; 

To God alone your offerings bring ; 

Let young and old his praises sing. 

" Lord, let this work of love 

Be crowned with full success : 
Let thousands, yet unborn, 

Thy sacred name here bless ; 
To thee, O Lord, all praise to thee 
We'll raise throughout eternity.' ' 



5> 



